Data Quality Control, Data Correction, Data Quality Assessment, and Metadata

The data quality is generally established when the measurement is taken. Little can be done after the fact to improve fundamental quality. For example, a poorly maintained station with dirty optics or misaligned instruments will produce data with presumed (or even apparent) errors, and the magnitude of those errors is not likely to be discernable until days or weeks later. There is no way to systematically reduce the uncertainty of such a measurement, and one can only guess at which corrections to make. In this context, data quality control involves a well-defined

supervisory process by which station operators are confident that, when a measurement is taken with unattended instruments, the instruments are in a state that produces data of known quality. This process largely encompasses the calibration, inspection, and maintenance procedures discussed earlier, along with log sheets and other items that document the condition of the station. It also includes a critical inspection or assessment of the data to help detect problems not evident from physical inspection of the instruments.

Data quality assessment is a method by which data quality can be judged based on criteria for a particular application. Several particular errors of meteorological data can be detected by automatic screening algorithms. Corresponding tests are documented in a number of

publications, including Long and Dutton (2002); Maxwell, Wilcox, and Rymes (1993); Wilcox and Cormack (2011); Journée and Bertrand (2011); and Espinar et al. (2011). Data can be compared to certain physical limits that have been determined to be reasonable, with redundant or complementary measurements, or with physical or empirical models, all of which will provide some degree of independent measure for a quality judgment; however, dependent on how strict the screening parameters and their corresponding values are chosen, too many or too few events may be detected. Moreover, the values of some parameters are site dependent according to corresponding weather conditions; therefore, the results of the automatic screening always demand a manually check of an expert to ensure their validity. Also, further influences on the data potentially known by the supervisor have to be included as comments or flags.

The interpretation and application of solar resource measurements depend greatly on the efforts to record and include metadata relevant to the observations. This includes not only site location; local horizon survey; data acquisition system(s); input signal channel assignments; radiometer types, models, serial numbers, calibration histories, and installation schemes; but also

information on eventual post processing of the data and maintenance records. An example of online metadata is available from NREL’s Solar Radiation Research Laboratory.9 Such metadata should be included with the archiving of the measured solar resource data. For example,

influences that have to be documented may included damaged or misaligned sensors, maintenance works on the instruments, detection of soiled sensors and subsequent sensor cleaning, obstructed sensors, and temporarily erroneous calibration constants in the program code. These events are frequently not detected automatically or sometimes not even detectable

by automatic quality-control screening tools. Hence, manual checks are required, as discussed in Geuder et al. (2014). However, automatic tests such as those presented in the following contain important and valuable information and should be performed.

One common method for evaluating DNI, GHI, and DHI quality is a three-component coupling test. As described in Chapter 2, the measurements of DNI and DHI can be combined

mathematically to derive a global measurement, as described in Equation 2-4. When all three components are measured, measurement redundancy is apparent, because any one component can be derived from the other two; thus, in the context of quality assurance, expected values for each component can be calculated from the other two. This method helps quantify the relative error among the three components, although it does not necessarily determine strictly which measurement—or measurements—are in error. However, operational knowledge of the instruments and trackers can provide valuable insight into likely errors. For example, a

misaligned tracker would cause either a low DNI or high diffuse measurement (low DNI from a poorly aligned pyrheliometer or high diffuse from a poorly aligned shading disk). With this knowledge, and an observation of trends in the magnitude of flagging, a data quality expert can quickly spot common operational errors. The measurement of the three redundant components— rather than only a single measurement or two components of specific interest—is a significant and important tool for data quality analysis, and it should be strongly considered when

specifying instrumentation for a station.

For example, the SERI QC software (Maxwell et al. 1993) produces flags that can be plotted (see Figure 3-14). The process generates a data quality value, or flag, for each data point based upon a normalization process involving the dimensionless parameters—clearness or cloudiness index, (Kt), effective diffuse horizontal transmittance (Kd), and direct beam transmittance (Kn)— derived from the corresponding ETR. The plot on the left indicates more severe flags from among the three components, plotted here by day of month (y axis) and hour of day (x axis), the least error in the dark blue, and the greatest error in red. Further, the other three plots correspond respectively to normalized GHI, DNI, and DHI measurements, providing the analyst with

Figure 3-21. Example of SERI quality-control data quality-assurance reporting. Image from NREL

In the case shown in Figure 3-21, the three-component data (GHI, DNI, and DHI) were submitted to the SERI QC software, which performs the three-component coupling test in the realm of the clearness index, or Kt, Kn, and Kd (see Chapter 2). This K-space value normalizes the solar irradiance values to remove the effect of the SZA. Thus, in K-space

Kt = Kn + Kd (3-17)

Or, rearranged, the deviation from this equation of component coupling can be quantified as the residual from

Ε = Kt – Kn – Kd (3-18)

Perfect component coupling would result in ε = 0, and any nonzero value indicates some

disagreement among the instruments; however, this method does not reveal which component or components are in error, only that there is some disagreement. Further, instrument errors in opposing directions could result in a false zero value.

Despite these ambiguities, a knowledgeable analyst can confidently detect measurement errors in most typical measurement scenarios. In the case of Figure 3-21, for each minute data record containing the three components, the residual was plotted as a quality flag, with red color flags (left column) indicating a greater deviation or apparent error. The actual Kt, Kn, and Kd values are also plotted in the next three columns; the red roughly correlates to higher irradiance, and the

dark blue represents the least clear. Data from an RSI consist of GHI, DNI, and DHI and are derived from a single pyranometer. To some extent, this limitation can be mitigated by including a secondary unshaded (GHI) pyranometer on the RSI to provide some redundant measurements. This enhancement is a relatively low-cost method of adding confidence in the measurements and can be included in a two- or three-component quality-assessment test.

The three-component methods described here are generally more reliable than a simple clear-sky data analysis in which some conclusions are drawn based on modeled or other expected values of the clear-sky data. Significant day-to-day variations in cloudless, clear-sky data can occur

because of variations in atmospheric constituents, such as aerosols or water vapor. Thus, such variation can make it difficult to draw conclusions about possible instrument error without specific information regarding other critical atmospheric components.

A successful quality-control process requires elements of quality assessment and feedback. Figure 3-22 depicts a quality-assurance cycle that couples data acquisition with quality assessment and feedback.

Figure 3-22. Information flow of a quality-assurance cycle. Image from NREL

As shown in Figure 3-22, the information flows from data acquisition to quality assessment, where some criteria are used to establish data quality. The results of the quality assessment are analyzed and formed into feedback that goes back to the data acquisition module. The activities in the boxes can take several forms. For example, quality assessment could be the daily site inspection, and the analysis and feedback could be a simple procedure that corrects equipment malfunctions. Or the quality assessment could be a weekly summary of data flags, and the analysis provides a determination of specific instrument error that is transmitted back to

increase that a large portion of the data set would be contaminated with substandard equipment. More than one quality-assurance cycle can—and likely will—run at any time, each with a different period and emphasis, as noted above: daily inspection, weekly quality reports, monthly summaries, etc.

One practical aspect of this cycle is the importance of positive feedback—a regular report back to site personnel of error conditions and of high-quality operations or data sets exceeding quality thresholds. This positively reinforces a job well done and keeps site operators cognizant that data are being used and that their efforts are an integral part of an ongoing process.

The quality-assurance cycle is a deliberate part of the quality-control process, and it should be well defined and funded to maintain a consistency of data quality over time. After the quality of the data is determined, corresponding conclusions have to be made for the further use of the data. In every case, the quality-assurance has to be included in the data set as metadata. In some cases, the quality of the data can even be improved based on the quality assurance. For example, data gaps from one sensor can be filled with the redundant data. Gap filling is a complex topic that is not described in detail here. To calculate daily, monthly, or yearly sums, gap filling will nearly always be necessary, and it is recommended that the reader considers various publications concerning the topic for this type of correction.

Another systematic error that might be corrected concerns the calibration. If the recalibration of a sensor shows a noticeable change relative to the calibration constant that was used sligtly before the recalibration, the data might be reprocessed with a corrected calibration constant. For sun photometers, this kind of post processing is known from the AERONET Level 2 data (Holben 1998). A noticed change of the calibration constant is assumed to be linear in time, and the data between the two calibrations is then reprocessed with a time series of linearly changing

calibration constants.

Also, the systematic effects of soiling on the resource assessment can be reduced by some extent. This requires that an eventual change of the DNI caused by the sensor cleaning is documented. One example for the correction of DNI data can be found in Geuder (2006); however, such a correction can result only in accurate data if the effect of the soiling is small at all times (< 1 %). The availability of rough correction methods does not affect the requirement frequently clean the instruments.