he solar radiation reaching the ground level on horizontal surfaces is of interest to many domains. The database HelioClim-1 contains daily values of radiation for 21 years: 1985-2005. It has been derived from Meteosat images and covers Europe, Africa and Atlantic Ocean. It is compared to ground-based measurements in Mozambique collected from the World Radiation Data Center. The quality of HelioClim-1 is good: the root mean square difference is approximately 30 W/m², and the correlation coefficient is greater than 0.85. These results are similar to those obtained by previous studies for Europe. HelioClim-1 is freely available through the SoDa Service and offers a reliable and accurate knowledge of the solar radiation and its daily, seasonal and annual variations over recent years.