Simulation of Solar Radiation Heat Flux Data for Energy Calculation

Abstract

The global (or total) and diffuse solar irradiation data are not always available in many areas of the world and they have to be estimated using some sort of empirical models. This paper describes how the sequence of hourly irradiation data can be simulated using some statistical parameters of the global solar radiation intensity such as the monthly average and variance of its daily maxima and autocorrelation time constant. The results of this simulation are compared with the measured data for two different locations, Ottawa, Canada and Warsaw, Poland (these two locations are chosen because of easy access to the radiation data). The comparison shows an acceptable level of agreement between the simulated and measured results.