Modeling Hourly Solar Radiation at Ground Level by Semi Empirical Models in Algeria

Abstract

Global solar radiation is very important variable in agricultural meteorology and many applied sciences, is measured at very limited number of meteorological Algeria stations. The aim of our study is the determination of global solar radiation for short time scale by some geographical and meteorological parameters, for this purpose we developed tree semi empirical models: Capderou, Atwater&Ball and Lieu&Jordan models. MATLAB was the simulation tool where the program was developed to calculate the hourly global radiation. The results obtained were confirmed by comparing them with the measured results by two statistical indicators: coefficient of determination R 2 and the percentage root mean square error RMSE% for two Algerian sites: Tamanrasset and Algiers.