National Solar Radiation Data Base (NSRDB)

The National Solar Radiation Data Base 1961-1990 (NSRDB) is a research product of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Renewable Resource Data Center (RReDC). NSRDB is a serially complete collection of hourly values of the three most common measurements of solar radiation (global horizontal, direct normal, and diffuse horizontal) over a period of time adequate to establish means and extremes, and at a sufficient number of locations to represent regional solar radiation climates. The solar radiation and meteorological elements contained in the database are listed at [http://rredc.nrel.gov/solar/pubs/NSRDB/1-1.html]. Version 1.0 of NSRDB (NSRDB) contains 30 years of solar radiation and supplementary meteorological data from 237 NWS sites in the United States, plus sites in Guam and Puerto Rico.

The updated 1991-2005 NSRD holds solar and meteorological data for 1,454 locations in the United States and its territories as well as a one-tenth-degree gridded data set that contains hourly solar records for 8 years (1998-2005) for the United States (except Alaska above 60 degree latitude) for about 100,000 pixel locations (at a nominal 10-km-by-10-km pixel size). In the updated NSRD, all gaps in station records were filled, and the stations were classified by data quality. The National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) provides primary distribution of the updated NSRDB, but the NREL site holds a solar research version of the NSRDB with additional solar fields (without meteorological data). About 40 stations in the updated NSRDB include measured solar data, supplied by the following agencies: Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program, DOE; Florida Solar Energy Center, State of Florida; Integrated Surface Irradiance Study (ISIS) and Surface Radiation Budget Measurement (SURFRAD) Networks, NOAA/ARL, NOAA/ESRL/Global Monitoring Division; Measurement and Instrumentation Data Center, NREL; University of Oregon Solar Radiation Monitoring Laboratory Network; and University of Texas Solar Energy Laboratory.

A significant difference between the 1961-1990 and 1991-2005 NSRDBs involves data storage. In the original, measured data were merged with modeled data such that a seamless data set of solar radiation values was produced. (The model essentially filled gaps in the measured data.) The update includes fields for both, which allows users the flexibility to choose modeled or, if available, measured data for an application.

1961-1990年国家太阳辐射数据库（National Solar Radiation Data Base，简称NSRDB）是美国能源部（U.S. Department of Energy，简称DOE）、国家可再生能源实验室（National Renewable Energy Laboratory，简称NREL）以及可再生资源数据中心（Renewable Resource Data Center，简称RReDC）的研究成果。NSRDB包含一套时序完整的逐小时观测数据集，涵盖三类最常用的太阳辐射观测指标：总水平辐射、直接法向辐射以及散射水平辐射；观测周期足够长以支撑辐射均值与极值的统计分析，且观测站点数量充足，可充分表征区域太阳辐射气候特征。该数据库所包含的太阳辐射与气象要素详情可参见：[http://rredc.nrel.gov/solar/pubs/NSRDB/1-1.html]。NSRDB 1.0版本包含美国境内237个国家气象局（National Weather Service，简称NWS）站点以及关岛、波多黎各的相关站点共计30年的太阳辐射与配套气象数据。

更新后的1991-2005年太阳辐射数据集（NSRD）涵盖美国及其领地内1454个站点的太阳辐射与气象数据，同时包含一套0.1度网格数据集：该数据集覆盖美国（北纬60度以北的阿拉斯加地区除外）约10万个像素点（标称尺寸为10千米×10千米），提供1998-2005年共计8年的逐小时太阳辐射记录。在更新后的数据集内，所有站点观测记录的缺失值均已补齐，且所有站点均按数据质量完成分级。国家气候数据中心（National Climatic Data Center，简称NCDC）负责更新后NSRDB的主要分发工作，而NREL官网则提供该数据集的太阳辐射研究版，该版本包含额外的太阳辐射要素字段（不含气象数据）。更新后的NSRDB中约有40个站点的实测太阳辐射数据由以下机构提供：美国能源部大气辐射测量（Atmospheric Radiation Measurement，简称ARM）计划；佛罗里达州佛罗里达太阳能中心；美国国家海洋和大气管理局/空气资源实验室、美国国家海洋和大气管理局/地球系统研究实验室/全球监测部门所属的综合地表辐照研究（Integrated Surface Irradiance Study，简称ISIS）与地表辐射收支测量（Surface Radiation Budget Measurement，简称SURFRAD）网络；NREL测量与仪器数据中心；俄勒冈大学太阳辐射监测实验室网络；以及德克萨斯大学太阳能实验室。

1961-1990年与1991-2005年两版NSRDB的核心差异在于数据存储方式。初代数据集将实测数据与模拟数据进行融合，生成了时序连续的太阳辐射完整数据集（本质上是通过模型补齐了实测数据的缺失值）。更新后的数据集则同时保留了两类数据的对应字段，使用户可根据应用需求灵活选择模拟数据或（若可用的）实测数据。