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MSG Sunshine Data: download

You are strongly advised to read the Good, E. (2010) and/or Kothe et al. (2013) before using the data. Data are provided in NetCDF files and contain the following variables for each pixel on each day (click on links for further information about each variable):

Sunshine
Percentage observational coverage

Monthly data are available by request (and will be added to this page very shortly).

Pixel latitudes and longitudes are not included in the NetCDF files in order to conserve space, as the geolocation grid is constant from one day to the next. The files msg_geo_euro.nc.gz (3.9 MB) and msg_geo_uk.nc.gz (235 kB) contain latitude and longitude information for each SEVIRI pixel in the files below. The data and geolocation files are identical over the UK.

UK DATA

Year	Data file	Number of Files	Size (MB)

2009	msg_sunshine_daily_uk_2009.tar	116	6M
2010	msg_sunshine_daily_uk_2010.tar	364	21M
2011	msg_sunshine_daily_uk_2011.tar	363	20M
2012	msg_sunshine_daily_uk_2012.tar	59	2.8M

EUROPEAN DATA

Year	Data file	Number of Files	Size (MB)

2009	msg_sunshine_daily_euro_2009.tar	116	95M
2010	msg_sunshine_daily_euro_2010.tar	364	267M
2011	msg_sunshine_daily_euro_2011.tar	363	322M
2012	msg_sunshine_daily_euro_2012.tar	60	42M

Sunshine duration

This is the total estimated sunshine duration for the specified day/month. This is obtained by analysing Satellite Application Facility to support NoWCasting and very-short-range forecasting cloud type classifications for all available 15-minute slots during daylight hours. Pixels classified as cloudy are assigned no bright sunshine whereas pixels classified as cloud-free are assigned bright sunshine. Fractional and semi-transparent clouds are treated as special cases (see papers for more details*). Units are in hours, with a scaling factor of 10 (i.e. divide by 10 to get correct numbers).

Percentage observational coverage

This is the % of the maximum number of possible observations that are valid during the analysis window used for the estimation of daily sunshine duration. Units are in %, with a scaling factor of 10 (i.e. divide by 10 to get correct numbers).

*Following the method of Good (2010), the data provided here use updated cirrus solar zenith angle thresholds of 72.1 deg, 62.6 deg and 48.2 deg for the three types of semi-transparent cloud classifications provided by the NWC-SAF. The thresholds were revised using the Fu-Liou radiation code used by Good (201) after discovering the original Good (2010) thresholds were incorrect.

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