1. Documentation
2. Solar
3. NSRDB Data Downloads
4. Meteosat Prime Meridian V1.0.0

Meteosat Prime Meridian V1.0.0 (/api/nsrdb/v2/solar/nsrdb-msg-v1-0-0-download)

Collect and download, as CSV, a configurable set of solar and meteorological data fields from The NSRDB. The National Solar Radiation Database (NSRDB) is a serially complete collection of satellite-derived measurements of solar radiation—global horizontal, direct normal, and diffuse horizontal irradiance—and meteorological data. These data have been collected at a sufficient number of locations and temporal and spatial scales to accurately represent regional solar radiation climates. The data are publicly available at no cost to the user. These API provide access to downloading the data. Other options are detailed here. Read more about the datasets at https://nsrdb.nrel.gov

This API is capable of creating very large downloadable archives. Unlike a typical API, the response to this provides a request acknowledgement. The real work of creating the requested downloadable archive will continue to run on the server side. When complete, and email will be sent to the email address provided in the initial request with a link to a file to download. In addition to this two step workflow, there is also an option for users who wish to download a single CSV file in direct response to an API request. The .csv format may be used to download a CSV directly. This feature is restricted to use with only a single POINT, for a single YEAR at a time.

Request URL

GET|POST /api/nsrdb/v2/solar/nsrdb-msg-v1-0-0-download.format?parameters

Request Parameters

NOTE: when using POST to submit a request the api_key must still be included as a query parameter in the url. All other parameters may be included in a POST request as part of the payload.

Response Fields

The response is composed of service-related informational fields and the results of the data query.

Data File Format

Generated data files are formatted in accordance with the Standard Time Series Data File Format. This file format has been developed to support SAM and other NREL models and is documented fully in this PDF. More information on SAM file formats available on the SAM weather page.

Examples

Examples may not reflect this specific dataset.

JSON Output Format

{
    "inputs": {
        "body": {},
        "params": {},
        "query": {
            "api_key": "{{API_KEY}}",
            "attributes": "alpha,aod,ghi,dni,dhi",
            "names": "2019",
            "utc": "true",
            "leap_day": "true",
            "interval": "10",
            "email": "user@company.com",
            "wkt": "POINT(-179.99 -15.94)"
        }
    },
    "metadata": {
        "version": "2.0.0",
        "resultset": {
            "count": 1
        }
    },
    "status": 200,
    "outputs": {
        "message": "File generation in progress. An email will be sent to user@company.com when the download is ready.",
        "downloadUrl": "https://mapfiles.nrel.gov/data/solar/332e3704bbdc119e0fb9c6bdafbce0eb.zip"
    },
    "errors": []
}

CSV Output Format

Direct streaming of CSV data is supported for single location, single year only. The following response example is truncated after the first few rows of data.

Source,Location ID,City,State,Country,Latitude,Longitude,Time Zone,Elevation,Local Time Zone,Clearsky DHI Units,Clearsky DNI Units,Clearsky GHI Units,Dew Point Units,DHI Units,DNI Units,GHI Units,Solar Zenith Angle Units,Temperature Units,Pressure Units,Relative Humidity Units,Precipitable Water Units,Wind Direction Units,Wind Speed,Cloud Type -15,Cloud Type 0,Cloud Type 1,Cloud Type 2,Cloud Type 3,Cloud Type 4,Cloud Type 5,Cloud Type 6,Cloud Type 7,Cloud Type 8,Cloud Type 9,Cloud Type 10,Cloud Type 11,Cloud Type 12,Fill Flag 0,Fill Flag 1,Fill Flag 2,Fill Flag 3,Fill Flag 4,Fill Flag 5,Surface Albedo Units,Version
NSRDB,0,-,b'None',b'None',-15.94,-179.99,0,0,12,w/m2,w/m2,w/m2,c,w/m2,w/m2,w/m2,Degree,c,mbar,%,cm,Degrees,m/s,N/A,Clear,Probably Clear,Fog,Water,Super-Cooled Water,Mixed,Opaque Ice,Cirrus,Overlapping,Overshooting,Unknown,Dust,Smoke,N/A,Missing Image,Low Irradiance,Exceeds Clearsky,Missing CLoud Properties,Rayleigh Violation,N/A,unknown
Year,Month,Day,Hour,Minute,Alpha,AOD,GHI,DNI,DHI
2019,1,1,0,0,1.02,0.0102,0,0,0
2019,1,1,0,45,1.02,0.0111,0,0,0
2019,1,1,1,30,1.02,0.0111,0,0,0
2019,1,1,2,15,1.04,0.0122,0,0,0
2019,1,1,3,0,1.06,0.013000000000000001,0,0,0
2019,1,1,3,45,1.07,0.0134,0,0,0
2019,1,1,4,30,1.07,0.0134,0,0,0

POST request example in Python

import requests

url = "https://developer.nrel.gov/api/nsrdb/v2/solar/nsrdb-msg-v1-0-0-download.json?api_key=yourapikeygoeshere"

payload = "api_key={{API_KEY}}&attributes=alpha,aod,ghi,dni,dhi&names=2019&utc=true&leap_day=true&interval=10&email=user@company.com&wkt=POINT(-179.99 -15.94)"

headers = {
    'content-type': "application/x-www-form-urlencoded",
    'cache-control': "no-cache"
}

response = requests.request("POST", url, data=payload, headers=headers)

print(response.text)

Rate Limits

Rate limits for this application are significantly less than the standard rate limits for developer.nrel.gov. This decrease in the limit is required as the data provided through this service is significantly more computationally intensive to generate and provide. These rate limits are carefully calculated to allow all users the maximum throughput that our servers can sustain.

There are several levels of rate limiting for this service. The first limit determines how many requests a given user can make per 24 hour period. For requests utilizing the .csv format this rate limit is set at 5000 a day at a frequency of no more than 1 per second. For all other requests this limit is set at 1000 requests per day at a frequency of no more than 1 every 2 seconds.

Secondly each user is limited to 20 in-flight requests at any given time.

In addition, the service has a fail-safe mechanism to prevent significant performance decreases that can be caused by unexpectedly high usage of the service. This limit will cause the service to stop accepting requests when the queue reaches a point where additional requests will significantly lower server performance. When this limit is hit, the service will error with a message describing that the request queue is full.

For some tips and tricks to maximize data downloads please read the guide here.

Contact

For questions about the API or the data models please contact nsrdb@nrel.gov

Errors

Standard errors may be returned. In addition, the following service-specific errors may be returned: