Skip to content
Collin edited this page Feb 15, 2016 · 9 revisions

Subcanopy Solar Radiation Model Documentation (SSR)

by Collin Bode

SSR is a model written in python that runs within GRASS GIS. To use, it requires installing and configuring GRASS, creating a grass workspace appropriate to your target area, and importing the LiDAR data into the workspace. Once all of this is accomplished, then you can run the model. Light modeling requires ray-tracing, which is extremely computationally expensive. It also is memory intensive. The output of the model is raster maps of insolation in watt-hours per meter squared. It runs for one calendar year and produces one representative map per week. This is 52 maps. There are 10 intermediate maps produced during the model run, resulting in 520 rasters.

SSR Version 1.0 Model Environment

Operating System: Linux (tested on Centos 5 & 7)

  • GRASS GIS 6.4 stable
  • Python 2.7
SSR Version 2.0 Model Environment (in development)
  • Operating System Independent (Centos 7 Linux, Windows 7, Mac OS X 10.10)
  • GRASS GIS 7.0.1
  • Python 2.7
Hardware recommendations
  • RAM 32+GB
  • CPU 8 cores
  • Storage 500GB free
Source Data
  • LiDAR bare-earth raster, preferably 1x1 m cell resolution in geoTIFF format.
  • LiDAR canopy raster (optional, can be generated), 1x1 m cell in geoTIFF format.
  • LiDAR point cloud, classified ground, non-ground, .las format or ASCII text.

Workflow Version 1.x

This documentation will not cover the installation of GRASS GIS or python modules. Please see the linked sites for details. The documentation will assume the Linux operating system and will be done entirely from the command line, even though GRASS has a graphical user interface.

Clone this wiki locally