{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,23]],"date-time":"2025-10-23T05:31:58Z","timestamp":1761197518577,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":44,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"12","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2017,12,7]],"date-time":"2017-12-07T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1512604800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Estimates of solar irradiance at the earth\u2019s surface from satellite observations are useful for planning both the deployment of distributed photovoltaic systems and their integration into electricity grids. In order to use surface solar irradiance from satellites for these purposes, validation of its accuracy against ground observations is needed. In this study, satellite estimates of surface solar irradiance from Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) are compared with ground observations at two sites, namely the main campus of the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) and the Alamo Solar Farm of San Antonio (ASF). The comparisons are done mostly on an hourly timescale, under different cloud conditions classified by cloud types and cloud layers, and at different solar zenith angle intervals. It is found that satellite estimates and ground observations of surface solar irradiance are significantly correlated (p &lt; 0.05) under all sky conditions (r: 0.80 and 0.87 on an hourly timescale and 0.94 and 0.91 on a daily timescale, respectively for the UTSA and ASF sites); on the hourly timescale, the correlations are 0.77 and 0.86 under clear-sky conditions, and 0.74 and 0.84 under cloudy conditions, respectively for the UTSA and ASF sites, and mostly &gt;0.60 under different cloud types and layers for both sites. The correlations under cloudy-sky conditions are mostly stronger than those under clear-sky conditions at different solar zenith angles. The correlation coefficients are mostly the smallest with solar zenith angle in the range of 75\u201390\u00b0 under all sky, clear-sky and cloudy-sky conditions. At the ASF site, the overall bias of GOES surface solar irradiance is small (+1.77 Wm\u22122) under all sky while relatively larger under clear-sky (\u221222.29 Wm\u22122) and cloudy-sky (+40.31 Wm\u22122) conditions. The overall good agreement of the satellite estimates with the ground observations underscores the usefulness of the GOES surface solar irradiance estimates for solar energy studies in the San Antonio area.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs9121268","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2017,12,7]],"date-time":"2017-12-07T11:49:10Z","timestamp":1512647350000},"page":"1268","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":12,"title":["An Evaluation of Satellite Estimates of Solar Surface Irradiance Using Ground Observations in San Antonio, Texas, USA"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"9","author":[{"given":"Shuang","family":"Xia","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Texas Sustainable Energy Research Institute, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX 78249, USA"},{"name":"Laboratory for Remote Sensing and Geoinformatics, Department of Geological Sciences, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX 78249, USA"}]},{"given":"Alberto","family":"Mestas-Nu\u00f1ez","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory for Remote Sensing and Geoinformatics, Department of Geological Sciences, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX 78249, USA"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3516-1210","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Hongjie","family":"Xie","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory for Remote Sensing and Geoinformatics, Department of Geological Sciences, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX 78249, USA"}]},{"given":"Rolando","family":"Vega","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"CPS Energy, San Antonio, TX 78205, USA"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2017,12,7]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"445","DOI":"10.1016\/j.solener.2004.03.031","article-title":"Photocatalytic water treatment: Solar energy applications","volume":"77","author":"Bahnemann","year":"2004","journal-title":"Sol. Energy"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"15","DOI":"10.1016\/j.mssp.2015.07.017","article-title":"Decontamination and disinfection of water by solar photocatalysis: The pilot plants of the Plataforma Solar de Almeria","volume":"42","author":"Malato","year":"2016","journal-title":"Mater. Sci. Semicond. Process."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Byrne, J.A., Fernandez-Ibanez, P.A., Dunlop, P.S.M., Alrousan, D.M.A., and Hamilton, J.W.J. (2011). Photocatalytic Enhancement for Solar Disinfection of Water: A Review. Int. J. Photoenergy.","DOI":"10.1155\/2011\/798051"},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"102","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jclepro.2012.10.034","article-title":"Application of solar energy for water supply and sanitation in Arsenic affected rural areas: A study for Kaudikasa village, India","volume":"60","author":"Jasrotia","year":"2013","journal-title":"J. Clean. Prod."},{"key":"ref_5","first-page":"21","article-title":"Solar Energy Application on Environmental Protection","volume":"1","author":"Samimi","year":"2012","journal-title":"Int. J. Sci. Investig. Fr."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"250","DOI":"10.1016\/j.enpol.2015.06.039","article-title":"The environmental and cost implications of solar energy preferences in Renewable Portfolio Standards","volume":"86","author":"Novacheck","year":"2015","journal-title":"Energy Policy"},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"766","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rser.2013.08.041","article-title":"Environmental impacts of utility-scale solar energy","volume":"29","author":"Hernandez","year":"2014","journal-title":"Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"533","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rser.2013.07.015","article-title":"A review on green energy potentials in Iran","volume":"27","author":"Hosseini","year":"2013","journal-title":"Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"31","DOI":"10.1016\/j.futures.2015.03.003","article-title":"Review of fossil fuels and future energy technologies","volume":"69","author":"Abas","year":"2015","journal-title":"Futures"},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2427","DOI":"10.1016\/S0273-1177(02)80296-4","article-title":"Geostationary satellite parameters for surface energy balance","volume":"30","author":"Pinker","year":"2002","journal-title":"Adv. Space Res."},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1882","DOI":"10.1016\/j.asr.2007.06.047","article-title":"Remote sensing of aerosol and radiation from geostationary satellites","volume":"41","author":"Laszlo","year":"2008","journal-title":"Adv. Space Res."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"389","DOI":"10.1175\/1520-0450(1985)024<0389:MSSRMF>2.0.CO;2","article-title":"Modeling surface solar radiation: Model formulation and validation","volume":"24","author":"Pinker","year":"1985","journal-title":"J. Clim. Appl. Meteorol."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Pinker, R.T., Tarpley, J.D., Laszlo, I., Mitchell, K.E., Houser, P.R., Wood, E.F., Schaake, J.C., Robock, A., Lohmann, D., and Cosgrove, B.A. (2003). Surface radiation budgets in support of the GEWEX Continental-Scale International Project (GCIP) and the GEWEX Americas Prediction Project (GAPP), including the North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS) project: GEWEX Continental-Scale International Project, Part 3 (GCIP3). J. Geophys. Res., 108.","DOI":"10.1029\/2002JD003301"},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2341","DOI":"10.1175\/1520-0477(2000)081<2341:SANSRB>2.3.CO;2","article-title":"SURFRAD\u2014A national surface radiation budget network for atmospheric research","volume":"81","author":"Augustine","year":"2000","journal-title":"Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Meng, C.J., Pinker, R.T., Tarpley, J.D., and Laszlo, I. (2003). A satellite approach for estimating regional land surface energy budget for GCIP\/GAPP. J. Geophys. Res., 108.","DOI":"10.1029\/2002JD003088"},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"460","DOI":"10.1175\/JHM440.1","article-title":"Validation of GOES-based insolation estimates using data from the US Climate Reference Network","volume":"6","author":"Otkin","year":"2005","journal-title":"J. Hydrometeorol."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Habte, A., Sengupta, M., and Wilcox, S. (2012, January 23\u201326). Comparing Measured and Satellite-Derived Surface Irradiance. Proceedings of the ASME 2012 6th International Conference on Energy Sustainability collocated with the ASME 2012 10th International Conference on Fuel Cell Science, Engineering and Technology, San Diego, CA, USA.","DOI":"10.1115\/ES2012-91417"},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Habte, A., Sengupta, M., and Wilcox, S. (2013). Validation of GOES-Derived Surface Radiation Using NOAA\u2019s Physical Retrieval Method.","DOI":"10.2172\/1067900"},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1986","DOI":"10.1016\/j.energy.2010.10.030","article-title":"Solar orbital power: Sustainability analysis","volume":"36","author":"Milfelner","year":"2011","journal-title":"Energy"},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"853","DOI":"10.1016\/j.energy.2013.01.054","article-title":"Cloud detection, classification and motion estimation using geostationary satellite imagery for cloud cover forecast","volume":"55","author":"Escrig","year":"2013","journal-title":"Energy"},{"key":"ref_21","unstructured":"Kleissl, J. (2013). Solar Energy Forecasting and Resource Assessment, Academic Press."},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"194","DOI":"10.1175\/1520-0450(1992)031<0194:MSSIFS>2.0.CO;2","article-title":"Modeling surface solar irradiance for satellite applications on a global scale","volume":"31","author":"Pinker","year":"1992","journal-title":"J. Appl. Meteorol."},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"56","DOI":"10.1175\/1520-0442(1992)005<0056:GDOPAR>2.0.CO;2","article-title":"Global distribution of photosynthetically active radiation as observed from satellites","volume":"5","author":"Pinker","year":"1992","journal-title":"J. Clim."},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"47","DOI":"10.1007\/BF01025504","article-title":"On the impact on forecast accuracy of the step-mountain (eta) vs. sigma coordinate","volume":"50","author":"Mesinger","year":"1992","journal-title":"Meteorol. Atmos. Phys."},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"265","DOI":"10.1175\/1520-0434(1994)009<0265:TNNMEM>2.0.CO;2","article-title":"The new NMC mesoscale Eta model: Description and forecast examples","volume":"9","author":"Black","year":"1994","journal-title":"Weather Forecast."},{"key":"ref_26","unstructured":"Tarpley, J.D., Pinker, R.T., and Laszlo, I. (1996, January 17\u201321). Experimental GOES shortwave radiation budget for GCIP. Proceedings of the Second International Scientific Conference on the Global Energy and Water Cycle, Washington, DC, USA."},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"391","DOI":"10.1175\/1520-0434(1996)011<0391:CTTOEA>2.0.CO;2","article-title":"Changes to the operational \u201cearly\u201d Eta analysis\/forecast system at the National Centers for Environmental Prediction","volume":"11","author":"Rogers","year":"1996","journal-title":"Weather Forecast."},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"687","DOI":"10.1175\/1520-0469(1984)041<0687:ASPRTI>2.0.CO;2","article-title":"A shortwave parameterization revised to improve cloud absorption","volume":"41","author":"Stephens","year":"1984","journal-title":"J. Atmos. Sci."},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1145","DOI":"10.1016\/j.renene.2010.07.032","article-title":"Optimum fixed orientations and benefits of tracking for capturing solar radiation in the continental United States","volume":"36","author":"Lave","year":"2011","journal-title":"Renew. Energy"},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"804","DOI":"10.1175\/JAM2236.1","article-title":"Daytime global cloud typing from AVHRR and VIIRS: Algorithm description, validation, and comparisons","volume":"44","author":"Pavolonis","year":"2005","journal-title":"J. Appl. Meteorol."},{"key":"ref_31","unstructured":"Reno, M.J., and Stein, J.S. (2013, January 16\u201320). Using cloud classification to model solar variability. Proceedings of the ASES National Solar Conference, Baltimore, MD, USA."},{"key":"ref_32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Vignola, F., Michalsky, J., and Stoffel, T. (2016). Solar and Infrared Radiation Measurements, CRC Press.","DOI":"10.1201\/b12367"},{"key":"ref_33","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"807","DOI":"10.1016\/j.solener.2010.02.006","article-title":"A 24-h forecast of solar irradiance using artificial neural network: Application for performance prediction of a grid-connected PV plant at Trieste, Italy","volume":"84","author":"Mellit","year":"2010","journal-title":"Sol. Energy"},{"key":"ref_34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2111","DOI":"10.1175\/1520-0469(1978)035<2111:RPIEWC>2.0.CO;2","article-title":"Radiation profiles in extended water clouds. I: Theory","volume":"35","author":"Stephens","year":"1978","journal-title":"J. Atmos. Sci."},{"key":"ref_35","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1575","DOI":"10.1007\/s12206-013-1187-3","article-title":"Theoretical study on evaporation of sessile water droplets on a glass panel with infrared radiation","volume":"28","author":"Jang","year":"2014","journal-title":"J. Mech. Sci. Technol."},{"key":"ref_36","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1017","DOI":"10.5194\/acp-17-1017-2017","article-title":"Effects of cloud condensation nuclei and ice nucleating particles on precipitation processes and supercooled liquid in mixed-phase orographic clouds","volume":"17","author":"Fan","year":"2017","journal-title":"Atmos. Chem. Phys."},{"key":"ref_37","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2009","DOI":"10.1175\/JAMC-D-12-0330.1","article-title":"Evolution of Severe and Nonsevere Convection Inferred from GOES-Derived Cloud Properties","volume":"52","author":"Cintineo","year":"2013","journal-title":"J. Appl. Meteorol. Climatol."},{"key":"ref_38","unstructured":"Kayetha, V.K. (2014). Ice Clouds over Fairbanks, Alaska. [Master\u2019s Thesis, University of Alaska Fairbanks]."},{"key":"ref_39","unstructured":"Martin, J. (2015). Wild Weather (Oxford Read and Discover Level 5), Oxford University Press."},{"key":"ref_40","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"33","DOI":"10.1127\/metz\/2016\/0781","article-title":"Fast radiative transfer parameterisation for assessing the surface solar irradiance: The Heliosat-4 method","volume":"26","author":"Qu","year":"2017","journal-title":"Meteorologische Zeitschrift"},{"key":"ref_41","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"35","DOI":"10.5194\/asr-14-35-2017","article-title":"Do modelled or satellite-based estimates of surface solar irradiance accurately describe its temporal variability?","volume":"14","author":"Bengulescu","year":"2017","journal-title":"Adv. Sci. Res."},{"key":"ref_42","unstructured":"Masuda, K. (2014, January 23\u201328). Surface radiation budget: Comparison between global satellite-derived products and land-based observations in Asia and Oceania. Proceedings of the International Radiation Symposium, Busan, Korea."},{"key":"ref_43","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"9269","DOI":"10.3390\/rs70709269","article-title":"Validation of the surface downwelling solar irradiance estimates of the HelioClim-3 database in Egypt","volume":"7","author":"Eissa","year":"2015","journal-title":"Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_44","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3012","DOI":"10.1080\/01431161.2012.756598","article-title":"On the applicability of the Heliosat-2 method to assess surface solar irradiance in the Intertropical Convergence Zone, French Guiana","volume":"34","author":"Linguet","year":"2013","journal-title":"Int. J. Remote Sens."}],"container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2072-4292\/9\/12\/1268\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T18:53:04Z","timestamp":1760208784000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2072-4292\/9\/12\/1268"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2017,12,7]]},"references-count":44,"journal-issue":{"issue":"12","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2017,12]]}},"alternative-id":["rs9121268"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/rs9121268","relation":{},"ISSN":["2072-4292"],"issn-type":[{"type":"electronic","value":"2072-4292"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2017,12,7]]}}}