determining angstrom constants for estimating solar radiation in malawi确定埃常数估算太阳辐射在马拉维.pdfVIP

International Journal of Geosciences, 2012, 3, 391-397 /10.4236/ijg.2012.32043 Published Online May 2012 (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/ijg) Determining Angstrom Constants for Estimating Solar Radiation in Malawi 1 2 Griffin Salima , Geoffrey M. S. Chavula 1Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Malawi—The Polytechnic, Blantyre, Malawi 2Department of Civil Engineering, University of Malawi—The Polytechnic, Blantyre, Malawi Email: {gsalima, gchavula}@poly.ac.mw Received December 2, 2011; revised January 24, 2012; accepted February 28, 2012 ABSTRACT This paper discusses a procedure that was adopted for the development of a linear regression model for estimating solar radiation in Malawi. By making use of sunshine-hours data recorded at six selected meteorological stations in the coun- try, namely: Salima, Makoka, Karonga, Bolero, Chileka and Mzimba over the period 1991-1995, a set of Angstrom constants were obtained and averaged in order to develop the linear regression model. This model has potential for gen- erating ground observation data of solar radiation at any given location in the country using sunshine hours as the only required input. The Gunn-Bellan Spherical Pyranometer and the Campbell Stokes Sunshine Recorder were respectively –2 –2 –1 used in the measurement of incident radiation (Ib) in J·cm /day (converted to MJ·m ·day ) and sunshine hours. An Angstrom model of monthly average Clearness Index with normalized sunshine duration was then developed for each of the six