The Full Picture

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Informing decision making in the

energy sector using NASA spaceborne

observations and model predictions

Richard S. Eckman and Paul W. Stackhouse, Jr., NASA Langley Research Center

dapting global sets of spaceborne observations – often made

for diverse research purposes – to enhance end-user decision

making remains a challenge for the Global Earth Observation

Systemof Systems (GEOSS). The US National Aeronautics and Space

Administration (NASA) Applied Sciences Program (the Program)

seeks to identify innovative uses for NASA-derived spaceborne obser-

vations andmodel predictions and connect with end users to enhance

their ability to make management and policy decisions. The Applied

Sciences Program’s Energy Management application extends NASA

Earth science research results to improve decisions and assessments

for energy production and energy efficiency, by interacting with part-

ners to benchmark NASA research datasets derived from the analysis

of historic and current observations andmodels tomeet energy sector

needs. These partners are other government agencies (both domes-

tic and international), academia, professional organizations and the

private sector. These activities support the goals of the GEOSS energy

societal benefit area.

The Energy Management Program focuses its activities on several

energy sector themes by integrating NASA-sponsored spaceborne

measurements and mathematical models to produce value-added

datasets which can be directly used by energy decision makers. These

themes include renewable energy, energy efficiency (sustainable build-

ings), bioenergy, climate change impacts on the energy sector, supply

and load forecasting, and space weather impacts on the energy sector.

Key to the success of the uptake of Earth observations is the creation

of datasets in readily accessible formats, in units consistent with the

end-user’s needs, and delivered via the web. NASA researchers inte-

grate observations from multiple data sources and models to produce

value-added products for the energy sector. In the following sections,

we describe some recent Program activities.

Renewable energy

In the renewable energy sector, NASA has developed partnerships with

Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) and the US National Renewable

Energy Laboratory (NREL) to enhance their project analysis tools using

NASA-derived datasets of surface solar energy and meteorological para-

meters derived from assimilation models. This product, the Surface

Meteorological and Solar Energy dataset (SSE), contains over 200 satel-

lite-derived meteorology and solar energy parameters monthly averaged

from ten years of data on a 1° x 1° global grid. These data are derived

from a variety of NASA measurements and NASA-sponsored

programmes including the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE),

International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP),

Surface Radiation Budget (SRB), Global Modeling and

Assimilation Office (GMAO), Goddard Earth Observing

System (GEOS) meteorological analysis model, and

Langley Research Center FLASHFlux project providing

near-real time surface radiative flux.

RETScreen

(www.retscreen.net)

is a clean energy

decision support system, developed by NRCan’s

CANMET Energy Technology Centre, which enables

end users to better assess the feasibility of renewable

energy and energy efficiency projects, their costs, and

greenhouse gas mitigation benefits. Surface solar

energy measurements available from ground observa-

tions are often sparse or unavailable in the developing

world. NASA’s satellite-derived global observations and

historical datasets of meteorological parameters can be

integrated by the RETScreen decision-making tool to

enhance its utility where ground-based inputs are

unavailable. RETScreen has over 120,000 registered

users in the developed and developing world. We have

also partnered with NREL’s HOMER micropower opti-

mization tool for distributed power by making

available similar NASA-derived products. Both

RETScreen and NREL access the NASA data through

via the Internet; thereby providing convenient access

to the most recent parameter estimates available.

Studies by both partners, presented at the 2006

American Solar Energy Society annual meeting,

confirm the utility of the NASA SSE dataset in enhanc-

ing the ability of their decision support systems for the

adaptation and mitigation of energy production and

efficiency to changing environmental conditions.

The Energy Management Program has also participated

in the United Nations Environment Programme Solar and

Wind Energy Resource Assessment (SWERA) project. The

goal of SWERA is to enable the delivery of accurate solar

and wind energy resource assessment information glob-

ally. The project initially focused on 13 pilot countries in

the developing world. Working together with our deci-

sion support tool partners, the Program has been active

in supporting SWERA’s activities. NASA’s Energy

Management Program has recently initiated a project to

further the SWERA goals by enhancing the availability and

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