The World Radiation Data Centre
The World Radiation Data Centre
The World Radiation Data Centre (WRDC) is located in St. Petersburg at the Main Geophysical Observatory of the Russian Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring. The WRDC was established in 1964, and since that time it centrally collects, archives and publishes radiometric data for the world, to ensure the availability of these data for research purposes by the international scientific community. It issues a periodic bulletin entitled "Solar Radiation and Radiation Balance Data. The World Network."
The WRDC processes solar radiation data currently submitted from more than 500 stations located in 56 countries and operates an archive with more than 1200 stations listed in its catalogue. The WRDC is the central depository of the measured components such as: global, diffuse and direct solar radiation, downward atmospheric radiation, net total and terrestrial surface radiation (upward), spectral radiation components (instantaneous fluxes), and sunshine duration, on hourly, daily or monthly basis.
At the present time, recent and current data can be viewed by accessing the WRDC web site. It also contains a list of all stations that have submitted data. As new measurement data are received from National Meteorological Services and other institutions in paper form, on magnetic media or electronically, the WRDC performs a supplementary quality control and requests stations to confirm the data for total quality assurance. The data from GAW sites is represented in a specified directory as tables and as figures including graphs showing relationships between measured and estimated parameters.