The Effects of Clouds on the Performance of the Mcmaster Solar Radiation Model

Abstract

<p> The effect of clouds on the performance of the McMaster Solar Radiation Model was analyzed using global irradiance data from five Australian stations for the period 1978 to 1982. Ten cloud types were examined. Using values of RMSE and MBE, the model was found to perform well in 15 of the 24 years of analyzed data. The results, on average, parallel those found in previous Canadian studies. The dominance of low layer clouds coincided with all years displaying bad performance but a l so for some years displaying good performance. The analysis of specific cloud effects revealed that the model underestimates in the presence o f low layer clouds, is not well represented with middle layer clouds and overestimates with high layer clouds. These cloud effects can be used to explain some of the error found in the model's performance, much of the error present is random and cannot be explained by the effects of clouds. </p>