How to open the Brazilian Atlas of Solar Energy 2nd Edition database

The database of the Brazilian Atlas of Solar Energy is in the shapefile format. As an example, after the Horizontal Global Irradiation is decompressed you will have the following structure:

• GLOBAL_HORIZONTAL   (folder)
•       global_horizontal_means.dbf   (file with the values for irradiation)
•       global_horizontal_means.prj   (file with the projection used)
•       global_horizontal_means.shp   (file with the geometries)
•       global_horizontal_means.shx   (index file of geometry-values)
•       atlas_solar_2017_metadados.pdf   (file with essential information about the database)

We exemplify here, in simplified form, two ways of visualizing the data:

1. 1. With a spreadsheet, such as Excel or LibreOffice Calc, among others
2. 2. With a Geographic Information System (GIS)