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Solar radiation is missing in historical data

Yasuko Fukuda

April 15, 2021 03:42

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Hi.

However I make a request for historical data with a JSON return type by using the weather API, the solar radiation and energy data are not included.
Is there any query parameter or something I'm missing?

Thanks.

Query

https://weather.visualcrossing.com/VisualCrossingWebServices/rest/services/weatherdata/history?aggregateHours=1&combinationMethod=aggregate&startDateTime=2021-04-01T00%3A00%3A00&endDateTime=2021-04-05T00%3A00%3A00&collectStationContributions=true&maxStations=-1&maxDistance=-1&contentType=json&unitGroup=metric&locationMode=single&key=YOUR_API_KEY&dataElements=all&locations=34.9544%2C%20135.6684

 

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3 comments

• 0
  
  info April 15, 2021 04:24

  Thank you for your question. We have performed an additional data investigation and none of the weather stations near your request location reported solar radiation during the request time period. 

  We are going to perform additional data checks and so have created a support ticket or you so we can track this better.

  We also modified your post to remove your API key.

  Regards

  Visual Crossing Support

   

   

• 0
  
  Yasuko Fukuda April 19, 2021 02:06

  Thank you for your investigation. As the local meteorological observatory (Osaka, JA) one of the nearest weather station of the location I requested reports hourly historical data of solar energy (MJ/m2), I wondered why I couldn't get the solar radiation and solar energy data. I read "How to obtain solar radiation data" again, and understood that you collect only "solar radiation" and calculate "solar energy". Is it right? If you collect only "solar radiation" at this stage, is it possible to make the API also collect "solar energy (MJ/m2)"?

• 0
  
  info April 20, 2021 03:36

  Good question! When stations report solar energy directly they are generally measuring the solar radiation continuously and thus are able to calculate the energy themselves by summing up the energy through out the hour. 

  Unfortunately the current central databases we are currently using do not publish the solar energy reports (either because the source weather station does not provide it or lack of infrastructure in the central location). We therefore calculate the solar energy based on the solar radiation.

  This is an area of active work for our engineering team as we are expanding our ground-based observation collection to include remote source such as satellite and radar. This effort will allow us to provide a much more complete picture of the solar radiance and energy.

  Regards

  Visual Crossing Support