literally "inferior substitute", the 222 measurement sites in the 1952-1975 SOLMET/ERSATZ solar & meteorological hourly network that did not measure solar radiation The solar radiation for these sites was modeled from cloud cover data and other information The SOLMET/ERSATZ network has been replaced by the 1961-1990 National Solar Radiation Data Base
disapproval If you describe something as ersatz, you dislike it because it is not genuine and is a poor imitation of something better. an ersatz Victorian shopping precinct = fake. artificial, and not as good as the real thing