Cloud-Base Height Estimation Based on CNN and All Sky Images

Among several meteorological parameters, Cloud-Base Height is employed in many applications to provide operational and real-time cloud-base information to the aviation industry, to initialize Numeric Weather Prediction models and to validate climate models. Moreover, Cloud-Base Height is also useful in the nowcasting (very short-term forecasting) of solar radiation. As cloud movements mainly affect the solar irradiance availability, their characterization is extremely important for solar power applications; an accurate estimation of the ground shadowing requires the knowledge of cloud height and extent. In the present work, the Cloud-Base Height value is estimated starting from sky images acquired from a single All Sky Imager. In order to fulfill this task, a Convolutional Neural Network model is chosen and developed.