science

Typical meteorological year

Typical meteorological year is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Typical meteorological year rather than just read about it. In short: Typical meteorological year (TMY) is a collation of selected weather data for a specific location, listing hourly values of solar radiation and meteorological elements for a one-year period. The values are generated from a data bank much longer than a year in duration, at least 12 years.

Key takeaways

Typical meteorological year belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Typical meteorological year to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Typical meteorological year from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Typical meteorological year (TMY) is a collation of selected weather data for a specific location, listing hourly values of solar radiation and meteorological elements for a one-year period. The values are generated from a data bank much longer than a year in duration, at least 12 years. It is specially selected so that it presents the range of weather phenomena for the location in question, while still giving annual averages that are consistent with the long-term averages for the location in question. TMY data is frequently used in building simulation, in order to assess the expected heating and cooling costs for the design of the building. It is also used by designers of solar energy systems including solar domestic hot water systems and large-scale solar thermal power plants. Since they represent typical rather than extreme conditions, they are not suited for designing systems to meet the worst-case conditions occurring at a location. The source data is available for download from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The first TMY collection was based on 229 locations in the US and was collected between 1948 and 1980. The second edition of the TMY is called "TMY2". It is based on 239 stations collecting data between 1961 and 1990. The TMY2 data include Precipitable water column (precipitable moisture), which is important in predicting radiative cooling. The third, and latest TMY collection (TMY3) was based on data for 1020 locations in the USA including Guam, Puerto Rico, and US Virgin Islands, derived from a 1976-2005 period of record where available, and a 1991-2005 period of record for all other locations. To account for the recent changes in climate, a set of updated TMY collection called "TMYx" has been published by the creators of EnergyPlus software covering the period from 2006 and 2021 for about 16,000 locations globally. Commercial software packages supporting simulations using TMY data include TRNSYS, PV*SOL, PVscout, nPro and PVsyst. TMY data specific for specific locations will usually need to be paid for. On the other hand, an advanced, comprehensive, and free simulation package developed under funding from the US Department of Energy called EnergyPlus also reads TMY3 data files, and a large number of these are available at no cost from their website. NREL provides access to TMY2 and TMY3 data sets and also uses these data sets in its online solar energy calculator PVWatts.

References

External links Weather data for more than 2100 locations worldwide Map of EnergyPlus weather data locations TMY data for the United States and its territories Weather data - typical Weather worldwide Climate One Building - Repository of free climate data for building performance simulation

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Typical meteorological year

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Typical meteorological year claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Typical meteorological year before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Typical meteorological year ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Typical meteorological year

In research: Typical meteorological year appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Typical meteorological year in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Typical meteorological year is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Climatology, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Typical meteorological year outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Typical meteorological year in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Typical meteorological year means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Typical meteorological year out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Typical meteorological year in simple terms?

Why does Typical meteorological year matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Typical meteorological year?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Typical meteorological year.