# Cloud Radiative Effect Study Using Sky Camera

## TL;DR

This study investigates how cloud coverage affects solar irradiance using ground-based sky cameras and weather stations, providing insights valuable for solar energy forecasting and climate studies.

## Contribution

It introduces a method to automatically quantify cloud coverage and analyze its impact on solar irradiance, enhancing understanding for solar energy applications.

## Key findings

- Higher cloud coverage significantly reduces solar irradiance
- Sky camera-based cloud coverage correlates with solar measurements
- Method improves accuracy of solar energy forecasting

## Abstract

The analysis of clouds in the earth's atmosphere is important for a variety of applications, viz. weather reporting, climate forecasting, and solar energy generation. In this paper, we focus our attention on the impact of cloud on the total solar irradiance reaching the earth's surface. We use weather station to record the total solar irradiance. Moreover, we employ collocated ground-based sky camera to automatically compute the instantaneous cloud coverage. We analyze the relationship between measured solar irradiance and computed cloud coverage value, and conclude that higher cloud coverage greatly impacts the total solar irradiance. Such studies will immensely help in solar energy generation and forecasting.