Downloading and Installing the Weather Station Database
Before the Perez All-Weather Model may be used in AGi32, the Weather Station Database must be downloaded and installed. There are two ways to do this.
Easiest: Click on the Daylight button, which opens the Daylight Parameters dialog. Click on the Sites button. A pop-up message will ask if you would like to download the Weather Stations Database. Click on Yes, and then follow the prompts to complete the download and installation. It will take about 5-10 minutes altogether, depending on your computer speed and Internet connection. The download file is about 156MB. After installation, it will be about 1 GB.
Instead of clicking on the Sites button, you select Perez All-Weather Model and then click on the Stations button. The same message will pop up.
Alternative: You may also download from our website. Follow all the prompts to download and install the Weather Station Database in the location that the installer suggests; that is where AGi32 will look for it.
After the Weather Station Database has been downloaded
After the Weather Station Database has been downloaded, clicking on the Stations button will open the Weather Stations dialog. The Weather Station nearest the site location is listed first (based on latitude and longitude), with others listed in order of increasing distance.
Select the station that is likely to have weather data most similar to the site location. This is often the closest station, but not always. Click on Concepts tab (top of this Help topic) for more information.
If you would like to use a weather station that is not listed, type the name of the city where the station would be located and click the Find button or press the Enter key on your keyboard. AGi32 will show stations that include that entry in the station name or description. To remove the typed city name, click on the Clear button; the field will be cleared, and the stations nearest the site location's longitude and latitude will be listed.
Use Station Latitude/Longitude - If this option is selected, the station's latitude and longitude will be used instead of those of the site location. This option is not selected by default, as this will not generally be desirable.
Add - If new Weather Station data have been downloaded, clicking the Add button enables you to select the new file and add it to the list.
Delete - Removes the selected Weather Station data from the downloaded database. This might be done to reduce the size of the Weather Station database by eliminating those that the user will not likely need.