SolarData package update v1.1: R functions for easy access of Baseline Surface Radiation Network (BSRN)

Previously in “SolarData: An R package for easy access of publicly available solar datasets” [Sol. Energy 171 (2017) A3–A12], the R package SolarData was built for easy access of five publicly available solar datasets. In this update, code for reading data from the Baseline Surface Radiation Network (BSRN), the largest research-grade solar radiation monitoring network, is added to the package. BSRN comprises 66 stations (as of 2019-02) around the globe, which collect 1-min or 3-min radiation data since 1992. These data are stored in the so-called “station-to-archive” files, each containing records from one month and one station, and can be downloaded via ftp. The functions in SolarData v1.1 directly interact with these station-to-archive files, without using the BSRN-Toolbox. It should however be noted that SolarData is not a replacement of BSRN-Toolbox. Instead, it gives R users improved accessibility and freedom in BSRN data manipulation. Like the previous release, all contents herein described are made available on GitHub.