Saudi Journal of Engineering and Technology (SJEAT)
Volume-3 | Issue-05 | 293-306
Original Research Article
Computation of Solar Radiation for Various Climatic Regions of India
Dr. Pankaj Kumar Singh, Dr. Kamlesh Kumar Singh, Priyanka Singh, Sridhar C, Shikha Garg, R. Balasubhamian, Dr. Naveen Kalra
Published : May 30, 2018
Abstract
The historical weather datasets of different locations of India were complied
for solar radiation, maximum and minimum temperatures and sunshine hours. Solar
radiation is vital parameter, measured only at 35 meteorological stations all over the
India. Our country, with diverse agro climatic zones, although covered by huge network
of 550 Automatic Weather Stations but still faces the problem of acquisition of data
related to key meteorological parameters. This paper aims to calibrate the coefficient of
two equations: 1) Angstrom Prescott Equation [Rs= (a+b*n/N) Ra], which has input of
sunshine hours data 2) Supit–Van Kappel Equation [H=Ho (a √Tmax-Tmin +b√ (1-
Cw/8) +c), with the inputs of easily available temperature and cloud cover data, on the
basis of 25 stations all over India representing diverse agro climatic zones. Extrapolation
technique was used for the stations that are located within radius of 200 km. The
relationship of solar radiation with square root of the difference in maximum and
minimum temperatures was significant. The northern region showed greater range of
predictability, i.e. 0.43 to 0.86 in winter; 0.19 to 0.82 in pre monsoon; 0.25 to 0.84 in
monsoon and 0.40 to 0.89 in post monsoon which was statistically significant. The
degree of prediction was higher for locations in northern and western regions, which
was poor for all location in southern and eastern regions. The transmissivity of the
atmosphere for global solar radiation under perfectly clear sky conditions is given as the
sum of the regression coefficient a & b of Angstrom Prescott Equation. Also, the
transmissivity of an overcast atmosphere is interpreted as the value of the intercept, a.
From our regression constants (a = 0.23 and b = 0.38), it is observed that the
atmospheric transmissivity under clear skies is 0.61. This result compares well with the
value of 0.67 to 0.70 reported for the humid tropics [4]. The clear-sky transmissivity of
most tropical regions in general seems to lie between 0.68 and 0.75 [1, 8].