A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering

Thesis (M.Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 1989

A theoretical investigation has been conducted through the method of simulation to study the applicability of the Automatic Picture Transmissions (APT) of NOAA polar orbiting weather satellite for insolation estimation. Simulated data equivalent to NOAA-AVHRR-APT near infrared band data have been produced from GMS-HRFAX visible images, which are then used to determine the "cloudiness" of the atmosphere. The "cloudiness" is a measure of cloud cover over a target on the earth's surface affecting incoming solar radiation. "Cloudiness" shows a linear correlation with atmospheric transmissivity of solar radiation under some simplified assumptions. When global solar radiation has been estimated from a very simple linear model, and compared with that actually measured at ground by pyranometer, a good agreement between them has been found with average standard errors of estimate 16.4% and 11% of measured means for hourly and daily estimations respectively. In a cross test between two different seasons by estimation for one season using model of the other season, the r.m.s errors of estimate were found to be less than 22% and 19% of measured means for hourly and daily estimations respectively. The improvement in the assumptions used for simplification of the model will improve the accuracy of estimation. It has been found that APT data are theoretically feasible for insolation estimation. Finally, an operational coverage of radiation mapping APT data.