A software development of solar radiation data

• Grant number: 15/21624-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: June 01, 2016
• End date: December 31, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Mechanical Engineering - Thermal Engineering
• Principal Investigator: Alexandre Dal Pai
• Grantee: Marcus Vinicius Contes Calca
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Agronômicas (FCA). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Botucatu. Botucatu , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The development of technology in the environmental area is offering a greater range of sensors and automatic monitoring systems, generating a larger amount of measured data. For solar radiometry the development of thermal batteries and quantum sensors have popularized the measurement of solar components mainly administered by dataloggers (Automated measures).The Faculty of Agricultural Sciences of UNESP in Botucatu (FCA-UNESP) has measured the solar components since 1996 with use of the datalogger 21 X (Campbell Sci). In the early 2010s, the system was upgraded to a more modern version ( CR3000). Programming protocols have changed and impacted directly in the data storage format. Thus, the solar radiometry database of FCA now have two storage patterns, making it difficult to manage. In this sense, the database needs to be resized to ensure more efficient execution of routine tasks. Therefore, the aim of the research project is to develop a collection and storage of solar radiation data software in addition to making the recovery of information already stored in the database by the previous system. The project will be developed in modules. Routines will be developed that will store information of the sensors (sensor ID, start date and operation end, calibration factor), as well as solar irradiance values (Global Irradiance, diffuse, direct, UV, photosynthetically active, infrared, waves long) associated with geoastronomical parameters (latitude, longitude, altitude, solar declination zenith angle, true solar time, eccentricity of the Earth's orbit, among others). The programming language used is PHP with MySQL relational database. The code will open allowing its future expansion and adjustments. It is expected with this project the development of a more suitable tool for the storage of solar information. This standardization will optimize time in searching and processing of relevant information, enhancing exchanges between educational institutions. (AU)