Satellite-based surface solar radiation data records from the CM SAF – present and future

The incoming surface solar radiation is an essential climate variable as defined by GCOS. Long term monitoring of this part of the earth’s energy budget is required to gain insights on the state and variability of the climate system.

The EUMETSAT Satellite Application Facility on Climate Monitoring (CM SAF) generates and distributes high quality long-term climate data records (CDR) of energy and water cycle parameters, which are freely available.

The CM SAF CLARA and SARAH data records will be extended and updated in their next releases. Especially the latter will become a quasi-global data record in its upcoming edition - SARAH-4. Five geostationary orbits will be processed, and the consideration of snow on the ground will be further improved. Furthermore, the usage of daily varying aerosol information is explored for SARAH-4. Finally, the successor of the METEOSAT SEVIRI instrument, FCI, is already in orbit and will be used for a consistent near-realtime data processing.

The demonstrational CM SAF HANNA data set will be introduced. HANNA stands for “High resolution EuropeAN Surface Solar RadiationN dAta record” and is the first CM SAF data set using the SEVIRI HRV channel. The data set has been generated for a two-year test period (2019/2020) and contains the global radiation in 1 km spatial and 15 min temporal resolution for Europe.      

The presentation will give an overview of the status quo of CM SAF’s surface solar radiation data records and will give insights into the latest developments. Intermediate results of the SARAH-4 data records under development will be shown. The demonstrational HANNA data set will be introduced incl. the results of some validation activities.