SolarVision Almería: A Ground-Based Dataset of All-Sky Images, Solar Irradiance, and Meteorological Measurements

DOI

This dataset provides ground-based image and sensor measurement data from a scientific research site in southern Spain (Tabernas, Almería). Its main contributions include all-sky images in the visible spectrum from three different fish-eye cameras capturing clouds motions, as well as diffuse, direct and global solar irradiance measurements from ISO 9060 class A spectrally flat pyrano- and pyrheliometers. The cameras and irradiance measuring devices are co-located within a radius of 20m at the same meteorological station. Image data is provided in its original resolution ranging from 4 to 8 MP depending on the camera, in 8-bit JPEG format. The dataset contains low-dynamic-range (LDR) images with fixed exposure times between 80 and 320µs. Furthermore, two cameras were temporarily configured to automatically generate high-dynamic-range (HDR) images. For one of the cameras, exposure series were captured, consisting of three sequential images with increasing exposure times. Additionally, the dataset is enriched by meteorological measurements from nearby meteorological stations (within 500m), including ambient temperature, atmospheric pressure, wind speed and direction, and relative humidity. In total, the dataset spans two years, covering August 2022 to July 2024, with measurements recorded at a 1-min resolution during daytime (solar elevation angle exceeding 5°). The primary objective of this dataset is to provide researches with high-quality sky image and irradiance data to study the effects of clouds and atmospheric turbidity on solar irradiance, as well as to investigate cloud dynamics at high spatial and temporal resolution. In addition, the dataset enables direct comparisons between different cameras and configurations, e.g. images of fixed exposure times versus HDR images, helping to identify the best camera settings for a specific application.

Identifier
DOI https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.980067
Metadata Access https://ws.pangaea.de/oai/provider?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=datacite4&identifier=oai:pangaea.de:doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.980067
Provenance
Creator Fabel, Yann ORCID logo; Blum, Niklas; Nouri, Bijan; Wilbert, Stefan; Gonzalez Rodriguez, Sergio; Zarzalejo, Luis
Publisher PANGAEA
Publication Year 2025
Funding Reference Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection https://doi.org/10.13039/501100005910 Crossref Funder ID 67KI21007A https://www.z-u-g.org/foerderung/ki-leuchttuerme-fuer-umwelt-klima-natur-und-ressourcen/projekt/ausesol-ai/ AuSeSol-AI - KI-Methoden für Wärme- und Stromerzeugung mit solarthermischen Kollektorsystemen
Rights Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
OpenAccess true
Representation
Resource Type Bundled Publication of Datasets; Collection
Format application/zip
Size 2 datasets
Discipline Earth System Research
Spatial Coverage (-2.355 LON, 37.094 LAT); PSA, Tabernas, Spain
Temporal Coverage Begin 2022-08-01T00:00:00Z
Temporal Coverage End 2024-07-31T18:46:00Z