On the annual and monthly mean diurnal variations of diffuse solar radiation at a meteorological station in west Africa

Abstract

In addition to global solar radiationE ↓ g , the hourly diffuse componentE ↓ d incident on a horizontal surface has been measured from February 1993 to January 1995 at a meteorological station in tropical West Africa. The measured diffuse solar irradiance data was corrected for shadow band effects. The monthly mean diurnal variations of diffuse solar irradiance obtained for identical months in the two years have been compared and found to be generally consistent. The corresponding monthly mean hourly values ofE ↓ d for identical months in 1993 and 1994 agreed to within 9% while yielding correlation coefficients greater than 0.960. In addition, the monthly mean daily totals ofE ↓ d for identical months were found to agree mostly to within 6% and showed virtually the same annual variations in both years. The monthly mean daily total values of diffuse solar radiation for most months in the two years ranged between 7.94 MJm−2d−1 and 10.50 MJm−2d−1. The monthly mean of daily hourly maximum values ofE ↓ d obtained for identical months in the two years have been discussed in relation to the dominant atmospheric conditions during these months. The results been presented here have been compared with those of some investigators within and outside the Africa region.