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Understanding the frequency of solar forecast data updates
Solcast's real time and forecast data tracks and forecasts real clouds at a resolution of 1-2km and 5 minutes. With that, you can anticipate frequent, regular updates to help you make informed decisions.
All of Solcast's data products are 'Rapid Update', meaning we update all of our live and forecast data every 5-15 minutes, depending on where you're located in the world.
Forecasts outside the range of satellite based forecasts are updated up to 8 times a day to take advantage of the availability of new NWP model inputs which Solcast uses as part of a multi-model ensemble to produce forecasts with the same spatial and temporal resolution as our satellite based data, our forecasts update to utilise the most frequently updating models.
For Europe and North America, where rapid update NWP models are used, this is every 3 hours or 8 times a day. In other areas of the world, forecasts are updated every 6 hours or 4 times a day.
These updates occur with each new satellites scan, and include updates to each of the members of our probabilistic forecasting ensemble (represented in the P10 and P90 data in the forecasts).