Naming Convention of NSRDB datasets

Hey Paul,
Can you explain or point me at the naming convention behind the psm v4 weather files in the advanced weather data downloader? There is some discussion behind what the difference between GOES aggregated versus GOES conus data and the reason for the discrepancy.

Hi George,

SAM downloads weather files from the NREL National Solar Radiation Database: nsrdb.nrel.gov/ . You can find more information about the data there, and also in the NSRDB API documentation at developer.nrel.gov/docs/solar/nsrdb/ . If you have questons about the data, please contact the NSRDB team at nsrdb.nrel.gov/contact-us .

"GOES Conus" is the name of an NSRDB dataset. It provides files for 2021 to the most recent year, which as of now is 2023. It is developed using Version 4 of the NREL Physical Solar Model (PSM V4). PSM is the name of the process NREL uses to generate solar resource data from satellite imagery and meteorlogical data.

"GOES Aggregated" provides files for 1998 to the most recent year (2023). The data for 1998 to 2020 was developed with PSM V3.2.2, and 2021 to the present with PSM V4. This ensures that data for older years in GOES Aggregated dataset is consistent with the deprecated PSM V3.2.2 dataset.

"GOES Aggregated TMY" provides typical meterological year files using data from GOES Aggregated. For a description of TMY data, see nsrdb.nrel.gov/data-sets/tmy .

Best regards,
Paul.