Meteonorm weather is a commonly used weather source for international locations. This satellite weather source provides a uniform methodology for calculating irradiance, and will always be within 10 kilometers (KM) or ~6.2 miles of the design site. However, it can cause some confusion due to the way it is generated in HelioScope.
HelioScope obtains monthly irradiance values from Meteonorm, and then stochastically generates hourly values from that data. While the hourly level data is simulated, the sum of the hours in a month always adds up to the monthly irradiance value we were given. Since this is a “synthetic” year, we indicate the year as “2021”, to indicate that the hourly weather values do not represent a specific measurement source. This is in contrast to ground-based “TMY” files where the annual weather file is based on aggregating months from specific years as explained here.
Meteonorm Versions
Previously, HelioScope used Meteonorm 7. Now, HelioScope offers Meteonorm 8 weather files. The specific version is Meteonorm 8.2 rev 2. This version includes a newer climate period (2000-2019) for temperature, dew point temperature, wind, precipitation, and days with precipitation / (1996-2015) for radiation parameters. When using the nearest weather source for a new project, HelioScope will default to Meteonorm 8 unless another weather dataset is selected as your Team's "Weather Type preference". For more information on Meteonorm 8, please check https://meteonorm.com/en/meteonorm-version-8
How to Update Existing Projects to Meteonorm 8
Existing projects using Meteonorm 7 won't be automatically updated unless the project's Condition Set is manually updated to use Meteonorm 8 instead. To do so, go to HelioScope New Experience and open your Project. Next, click on Conditions in the left-hand toolbar, then select the Condition Set you want to update (e.g., Condition Set 2).
Click the ... (three-dot menu) next to the Condition Set name, then select Edit Condition Set.
In the Weather Sources list, select Meteonorm 8.
Click Save in the top-right corner.