Surface Solar Radiation Data Set - Heliosat (SARAH) -Edition 1

Surface Solar Radiation Data Set - Heliosat (SARAH) -Edition 1

"The Surface Solar Radiation Data Set - Heliosat (SARAH) is a satellite-based climatology of the solar surface irradiance (SIS), the surface direct normalized irradiance (DNI) and the effective cloud albedo (CAL) derived from satellite observations of the visible channels of the MVIRI and SEVIRI instruments onboard the geostationary Meteosat satellites. The data are available from 1983 to 2013 and cover the region ±65° longitude and ±65° latitude. The products are available as monthly, daily, and hourly averages on a regular latitude/longitude grid with a spatial resolution of 0.05° x 0.05°. The data set is complemented with a comprehensive documentation of the applied algorithms as well as validation studies and user guidance."

Key Strengths

Very high resolution; hourly/daily/monthly

Key Limitations

Regional coverage

Please cite data sources, following the data providers' instructions
Dataset DOIs
  1. Surface Solar Radiation Data Set - Heliosat (SARAH) -Edition 1
Hosted Climate Index Files
None
Data Access
  1. Surface Solar Radiation Data Set - Heliosat (SARAH) -Edition 1
Usage Restrictions
None

Cite this page

Acknowledgement of any material taken from or knowledge gained from this page is appreciated:

National Center for Atmospheric Research Staff (Eds). Last modified "The Climate Data Guide: Surface Solar Radiation Data Set - Heliosat (SARAH) -Edition 1.” Retrieved from https://climatedataguide.ucar.edu/climate-data/surface-solar-radiation-data-set-heliosat-sarah-edition-1 on 2025-07-18.


Citation of datasets is separate and should be done according to the data providers' instructions. If known to us, data citation instructions are given in the Data Access section, above.


Acknowledgement of the Climate Data Guide project is also appreciated:

Schneider, D. P., C. Deser, J. Fasullo, and K. E. Trenberth, 2013: Climate Data Guide Spurs Discovery and Understanding. Eos Trans. AGU, 94, 121–122, https://doi.org/10.1002/2013eo130001

Key Figures

CM SAF: Solar Surface Irradiance (SSI) for July 2013

CM SAF: Solar Surface Irradiance (SSI) for December 2013

Daily mean of fractional cloud cover (22 January 2012), Source: CM SAF

Monthly mean of vertically integrated water vapor (Jan 2010), Source: CM SAF

Daily mean of surfcae incoming surfcae radiation (8 July 1984). Source CM-SAF.

Other Information

Earth system components and main variables
Atmosphere, Cloud albedo
Type of data product
Satellite Data Products, SEVERI / MVIRI
Dataset collections
Climate Data Record

Years of record
to
Metadata ID
None
Data time period extended
None
Timestep
Sub-daily, Daily, Monthly
Domain
Africa, Europe, NH - Northern Hemisphere, SH - Southern Hemisphere
Formats:
netCDF
Input Data

satellite observations of the visible channels of the MVIRI and SEVIRI instruments onboard the geostationary Meteosat satellites

Vertical Levels:
Surface Data Set
Missing Data Flag
None
Ocean or Land
Ocean & Land
Spatial Resolution

0.05x0.05

Model Resolution (reanalysis)
None
Data Assimilation Method
None
Model Vintage (reanalysis)
None