Estimates of the Linke turbidity factor over Zimbabwe using ground-measured clear-sky global solar radiation and sunshine records based on a modified ESRA clear-sky model approach

This paper describes a procedure that can be used to calculate values for Linke atmospheric turbidity factors at air mass 2 (TL2) over Zimbabwe. Ground measured daily global solar radiation on clear days over 3years is used to evaluate TL2 for those stations that measure global radiation. The evaluation makes use of the clear-sky model of the European Solar Radiation Atlas (ESRA) combined with a diffuse transmittance model developed in the study. For those stations that do not measure global radiation but have sunshine duration records, global radiation values are generated through Angstrom type regression coefficients between the clearness index and relative sunshine duration. The TL2 values that are generated from the ESRA model are higher than those obtained from the study model (root mean square error (RMSE) up to 1.0 Turbidity Units). When compared to TL2 values from this study, the worldwide database SoDA, give significantly higher TL2 values (RMSE up to 2.2 Turbidity Units), underlining the value addition obtained in using measurement derived values in place of SoDA values.The values obtained from the study may be used to yield better estimates of clear-sky solar radiation for Zimbabwe. A better estimate of the clear-sky solar radiation will in turn improve the accuracy of the global radiation estimates from satellite based methods.