Matching Hourly Total Solar Radiation to WRF Variables

[serra]

Hello,

I am a master's student and new to working with WRF. I’m trying to match "Hourly Total Solar Radiation" (W/m²) from meteorological station data to a relevant WRF output variable.

I see variables like SWDOWN, SWDNB, and SWDNBC, but I’m unsure which one would be the best fit, or if any additional calculation is needed. Could someone guide me on which variable would be the most appropriate for comparing with the global solar radiation measured at ground stations?

Thank you for your help in advance!

 

[kwerner]

Apologies for the delay in response. I believe SWDOWN is the variable you're going to be interested in. However, this variable is accumulated over time, so if you want the hourly total, then you'll need to set history_interval=60 and then take the difference in values between the current hour and previous hour.