Abstract
From 1993 to the present (2000), King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) conducted a joint solar radiation resource assessment project to upgrade the solar resource assessment capability of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. KACST has deployed a high quality 12-station network in Saudi Arabia for monitoring solar total horizontal, direct beam, and diffuse radiation. One- and 5-min network data are collected and assessed for quality. 80% or more of the network data fall within quality limits of ±5% for correct partitioning between the three radiation components. We describe the network, quality assessment procedures, data formats and availability.