Chumnong Sorapipatana creator Exell, Robert H.B. Chairperson Foell, Wesley K. Examination Committee Lukens, John E. Examination Committee Prida Wibulswas\ Examination Committee Hay, J.E. Examination Committee DAAD Scholarship Donor text series technical report th Bangkok Asian Institute of Technology 1988 continuing eng 170 p. An attempt has been made to develop a new method of estimating daily insolation for use by developing countries in Southeast Asia where there is a problem of data unavailability due to lack of pyranometric measuring sites. The technique developed involves the use of Visible Infra- red Spin-Scan Radiometer System (VISSR ) data from the Japanese GMS-3 satellite to obtain the cloud parameters, namely fractional cloud amount and cloud albedo, affecting incoming solar radiation. The two effects are then combined into a single cloud effectiveness parameter. It was found that cloud effectiveness is linearly correlated with the atmospheric transmissivity . In comparisons between solar radiation estimated by the model and ground truth data, good agreement between the actual and model- derived hourly and daily global radiation was found , with root mean square errors of less than 12% and 14% of the means , respectively. The technique was adopted to map insolation for large geographical areas of the region through an operational system developed for implementation on an IBM 3083 computer . The system involves: (1 ) satellite data display and man- computer interaction on an image processor for data retrieval, ( 2) expertise in the navigation of satellite imagery and calibration of satellite data , (3 ) a library of software developed to enable the IBM 3083 to process satellite imagery . Finally, the capability of daily insolation mapping from satellite measurements is demonstrated. The method was implemented operationally and used to compute insolation fields for large geographical areas of the region between 98°E - 105°E and 10°N - 20°N for the winter and the summer months of 1986 and 87 . Satellite data sampled for 61 days were regressed with a set of pyranometer measurements. The insolation mapping obtained was of high quality, with relatively small spatial scale resolution fields of 1/2 degree grid point spacing . The strong correlation between insolation and cloudiness is verified, the cloudiness being affected in turn more by geographical terrain than by seasonal changes in the region. A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Engineering, School of Environment, Resources and Development Thesis (Ph.D.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 1988 Solar radiation Asia, Southeastern Meteorological satellites Asian Institute of Technology. http://203.159.5.9/ait-thesis/detail.php?q=B18791 http://203.159.5.9/ait-thesis/detail.php?q=B18791 181197 20260818154335.0