Distributed modeling of diffuse solar radiation over rugged terrain of the Yellow River Basin

In view of the compositive action of astronomy, atmosphere, macrogeography and local topography factors on the diffuse solar radiation, influences of sky factors and ground factors are separated. Using the extraterrestrial solar radiation model and the terrain openness model, found on DEM data, influences of ground factors on the diffuse solar radiation are considered. Using the horizontal diffuse solar radiation model, simulated by routine meteorological observation data, influences of sky factors on the diffuse solar radiation are considered. Based on anisotropy scattering mechanism, a distributed model for calculating diffuse solar radiation over rugged terrains is developed, which furnishes a new line of thoughts to diffuse solar radiation simulation over rugged terrain, with DEM data and routine meteorological observations as input. Using DEM data with resolution of 1 km x 1 km as the general characterization of terrain, distributed modeling of diffuse solar radiation over the Yellow River Basin was achieved.