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Well geographically distributed high temporal resolution solar irradiance data is scarce, resulting in many studies using mean hourly irradiance time-series as an input. This research demonstrates that by taking readily available mean hourly meteorological observations of okta, wind speed, cloud height and atmospheric pressure; 1-minute resolution irradiance time-series that vary on a spatial dimension can be produced. The synthetic time-series temporally validate against observed 1-minute UK irradiance data with 99% K-S test significance levels across 3 metrics of variability indices, ramp-rate occurrences and irradiance frequency. A new methodology is applied to existing research that produces two dimensional cloud cover using a vector approach to add spatial correlation to irradiance time-series, as well as improvements to the clear-sky index calculations. The methodology is applied to a hypothetical configuration to demonstrate its capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We introduce Parrondo’s paradox that involves games of chance. We consider two fair games. A and B, both of which can be made to lose by changing a biasing parameter. The apparently paradoxical situation arises when the two games are played in any alternating order. A winning expectation is produced, even though both games A and B are losing when we play them individually. We develop an explanation of the phenomenon in terms of a Brownian ratchet model, and also develop a mathematical analysis using discrete-time Markov chains. From the analysis we investigate the regions of parameter space in which Parrondo’s paradox can occur. We also consider some open questions that arise from this paradox and possible areas it could be applied. © 2000 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parrondo’s paradox involves two losing games of chance. The paradox is that a winning situation is produced when the two games are played in a random sequence in accordance with fixed probabilities. In this paper we investigate the relationship between these parameters and the entropy rates of the games. © 2000 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]