I attended the EMS2017 in DCU, Dublin in September 2017, where I presented a poster titled “Large scale atmospheric circulation patterns and solar energy resources in the UK and Ireland”. This work was part of the Energy Meteorology session (OSA2.6).
In this work I focused on the links between some large scale atmospheric circulation patterns (North Atlantic Oscillation; East Atlantic pattern and the Scandinavian pattern) and solar energy resources in Ireland and the UK. This was investigated using a reanalysis product (MERRA-2) and additionally observations for the island of Ireland. The relationship between the winter short-wave solar radiation and some of those patterns is characterized by east-west gradients in the correlation signal. This was shown with MERRA-2 for Ireland and the UK mainland; and with pyranometer observations for the island of Ireland. This information can be potentially used in solar energy resource assessments which aim at power facility location selection for energy balancing purposes.
In addition, I saw several interesting talks from the following sessions: Energy Meteorology; Mid-latitude atmospheric teleconnections; Climate monitoring: data rescue, management, quality and homogenization; Climate change detection, assessment of trends, variability and extremes.