0000000001056845
AUTHOR
M.d. Freile-aranda
Empirical estimates of the radiative impact of an unusually extreme dust and wildfire episode on the performance of a photovoltaic plant in Western Mediterranean
Abstract We have estimated the radiative impact produced by an unusually extreme dust and wildfire episode on the performance of a photovoltaic (PV) plant. The dust and wildfire events were mostly active on 26–28 and 29–30 June 2012, respectively. We took advantage of the consecutiveness of both events to separate and derive empirically the radiative effect of dust and smoke aerosols. With this purpose, we employed measurements of aerosol load, radiation and PV power output from a collocated atmospheric station and PV plant located at Burjassot (Valencia, Spain). The empirical estimates were obtained by direct comparison with a summer background day, happened right before the two consecutiv…
Heating rate profiles and radiative forcing due to a dust storm in the Western Mediterranean using satellite observations
Abstract We analyze the vertically-resolved radiative impact due to a dust storm in the Western Mediterranean. The dust plume travels around 3–5 km altitude and the aerosol optical depth derived by MODIS at 550 nm ranges from 0.33 to 0.52 at the overpass time (13:05 UT). The aerosol radiative forcing (ARF), forcing efficiency (FE) and heating rate profile (AHR) are determined throughout the dust trajectory in shortwave (SW) and longwave (LW) ranges. To do this, we integrate different satellite observations (CALIPSO and MODIS) and detailed radiative transfer modeling. The combined (SW + LW) effect of the dust event induces a net cooling in the studied region. On average, the FE at 22.4° sola…