Clouds and Solar Energy - Thursday, August 17, 2023

The GOES Visible Satellite Image late this afternoon is showing broad areas of smoke aloft over the Northern Plains. Very thin smoke is also aloft over the eastern Dakotas, Minnesota, Iowa toward the Upper Great Lakes. There is a large area of Cumulus clouds from Minnesota, Wisconsin, to Iowa and Illinois. The Cumulus in eastern Iowa show up on the Solar Radiation measurements on the Weather Briefing weather station.

Compare the graph of the solar energy from yesterday through today on the chart below. Yesterday the sky was clear all day. The trace is symmetrical and smooth indicating a clear sky. The dip in the radiation late in the day is due to an obstruction that temporarily reduced the radiation hitting the solar panel. Contrast that with today. Today it was clear in the morning - again a smooth uniform trace with the solar intensity expected this time of year. This afternoon notice how the amount of energy varies greatly over short periods of only 10 minutes. This shows how variations in solar energy can be dramatic as weather conditions change.