Active Solar Ground Stations across Australia

Last updated:7 June 2023

Solar ground stations around Australia are collecting valuable information and data about the solar resource in that area. The information on this page is to provide a link between a solar investigator and the organisations collecting solar radiation data through high quality ground stations in their area of interest. Geoscience Australia will further add to this linkage as we gain information and contacts with other potential sources for ground station information.

Active Solar Ground Stations across Australia

Bureau of Meteorology Solar Ground Stations

Station Name Data Collection Period Data Collected
Adelaide 1994 to present
  • direct solar irradiance
  • diffuse solar irradiance
  • global solar irradiance
  • down-welling infrared irradiance
  • direct solar spectral transmission at 368, 412, 500, 610, 778, 812, 868 nm
Alice Springs 1993 to present
Broome 1996 to present
Cape Grim 1998 to present
Cobar 2012 to present
Darwin 1993 to present
Geraldton 2012 to present
Kalgoorlie 1993 to present
Learmonth 1996 to 2006
Longreach 2012 to present
Melbourne Airport 1999 to present
Mildura 1993 to present
Rockhampton 1996 to present
Townsville 2012 to present
Wagga Wagga 1997 to present
Woomera 2012 to present

Contact Details: Bureau of Meteorology
GPO Box 1289
Melbourne VIC 3001

Recently the Bureau of Meteorology has made available, with support from the Australian Solar Institute, 1 minute ground station data.

Queensland Government Solar Ground Stations

Station Name Data Collection Period Data Collected
Charters Towers 2009 to present
  • global horizontal irradiation
  • global irradiation on a north facing plane inclined at latitude angle
  • global horizontal irradiation on a 2 axis tracking plane
  • direct beam irradiation
  • global solar exposure
  • direct solar exposure
  • diffuse solar exposure
  • global solar irradiance
  • sunshine duration
  • number of cloudy days and cloud types
  • climatic information
Cloncurry 2009 to present
Roma 2009 to present

Contact Details: Department of Energy and Water Supply
41 George Street, Brisbane QLD 4000
PO Box 15456, City East QLD 4002