NASA Derived and Validated Climate Data For RETScreen Use: Description and Access

1. Energy Efficiency and RETScreen Version 4 NASA Derived and Validated Climate Data For RETScreen Use: Description and Access Paul Stackhouse NASA Langley Research Center Charles Whitlock, Bill Chandler, Jim Hoell, Dave Westberg, and Taiping Zhang Science Systems Analysis, Inc.

2. NASA Strategic Goals and Applied Sciences • NASA Strategic Goal 3: Develop a balanced overall program of science, exploration, and aeronautics …. • NASA Sub-goal 3A: Study Earth from space to advance scientific understanding and meetsocietal needs. • NASA’s Earth science program: • develop a scientific understanding of Earth’s system and its response to natural or human-induced changes • to improve prediction of climate, weather, and natural hazards • partner for global modeling and assimilation of observations for science and applications • NASA’s Earth Applied Sciences program: • benchmark NASA research results into policy and management decision-support tools • support tools vital for the Nation’s environment, economy, safety, and security. NASA Langley Research Center

3. Researching Science Questions • How is the global Earth system changing? • What are the primary forcings of the Earth system? • How does the Earth system respond to natural and human-induced changes? • What are the consequences of changes inthe Earth system for human civilization? • How well can we predict future changes to the Earth system? Water Cycle Energy Cycle NASA Langley Research Center

4. NASA Observing Spacecraft for Earth System Research 4 NASA Langley Research Center

5. Earth System Science Models for Research and Applications Suites of Earth System Science Models NASA Langley Research Center

6. NASA Applied Science:POWER Project • Prediction of Worldwide Energy Resource • Objective: Improve the Nation’s public and private capability for integrating environmental data into sound management of energy production and energy efficiency systems. • Goals: • Establish partnerships to facilitate the integration and adaptation of NASA satellite analysis and modeling data into electric power industry Decision Support System’s (DSS) and databases. • Target such datasets for Electric Power, Renewable Energy, Energy-Efficient Building Design and Biomass Crop Development Industries • Transition operational capabilities to government and/or private sector entities. 6 NASA Langley Research Center

7. POWER Historical Data Sets Applied Science Outcome Earth Science Research SSE NASA Satellite Measurements, Analysis and Modeling SSE Web Site http://eosweb.larc.nasa.gov/sse/ > 200 solar and meteorology parameters; averaged from 23 years of data Terra Aqua SRB GMAO Growing over the last 8 years to nearly 30,000 users, 7.5 million hits and 1.4 million data downloads NASA Langley Research Center

8. NASA Parameters For RETScreen • Partner Requested Data from NASA: • RETScreen (NRCan/CETC) • SWERA (UNEP GRID/ • USGS, NREL) • MiniCAM (PNNL) • etc NASA Langley Research Center

9. RETScreen’s Use of POWER Climate Data RETScreen Climate Database • NASA directly delivered data used for Database • Surface measurements for cities from RETScreen (red dots) • NASA data used when surface measurements unavailable (blue dots) NASA data In Situ data • Data for locations between points are provided through a direct link to NASA SSE. NASA Langley Research Center

10. Retrieving NASA ParametersSSE Release 6.0 NASA Langley Research Center

11. NASA Data Project Improvements • Meteorological Products • Improved Atmospheric model and assimilation system • Surface parameters computed at doubled the spatial resolution • Improved validation relative to US/NOAA National Climate Data Center; observations matched in time and space • Solar Energy products • Improved solar energy algorithms including total, direct and diffuse irradiance and related products • Improved validation using longer records of more accurate surface measurements • Improved SSE Data Interface • SSE retrieved data sets now include enhanced parameter sets • SSE Release 6.0 include regional and daily averaged data sets NASA Langley Research Center

12. Overall Accuracy of NASA:Supplied Parameters Monthly Averaged Assessment Statistics () = 60o N - 60o S; na = not applicable; nya = not yet available NASA Langley Research Center

13. Example Parameters from NASA:Solar Radiation Times Series NASA Langley Research Center

14. Example Parameters from NASA:All-sky Direct Normal Surface Irradiance NASA Langley Research Center

15. Example Parameters from NASA: Heating Degree-Days (10-meter) NASA Langley Research Center

16. Example Parameters from NASA:Cooling Degree-Days (10-meter) NASA Langley Research Center

17. Example Parameters from NASA:Relative Humidity (10-meter) NASA Langley Research Center

18. Example Parameters from NASA:Earth Skin Temperature NASA Langley Research Center

19. Decade to Decade Changes:Solar Radiation Changes 1 2 3 NASA Langley Research Center

20. Decade to Decade Changes:Air Temperature Changes (10-meter) 1 2 3 NASA Langley Research Center

21. Decade to Decade Changes:Cooling Degree Day Changes (10-meter) 1 2 3 NASA Langley Research Center

22. Summary and Conclusions • NASA’s Earth Science Program is aimed atanswering critical questions involving the Earth-Atmosphere system using improved satellite analysis and earth systems science modeling • NASA’s Applied Science Program is aimed attransitioning this information to respond to societal and industrial needs • NASA’s POWER project has demonstrated the potential impact of this information through our continued partnership with RETScreen • The latest release of RETScreen combines it’s advanced capabilities for clean energy projects worldwide with the progress of NASA’s research. • NASA data sets now provide: • 23 years of global parameters required by RETScreen • More comprehensive validation for parameter estimates • Upcoming SSE release to make time series and regional data obtainable NASA Langley Research Center