Simple approaches to modelling solar radiation in the arctic

Solar radiation was modelled for an Arctic location using hourly and twice daily meteorological data. Results indicate that a total cloud model (TCo) employing cloud opacity data and cloud layer models (CLo) utilizing cloud opacity and cloud amount data (CLa) perform equally well; and they are better than a total cloud model (TCa) employing cloud amount data. The performance of TCo, CLo, and CLa models improve greatly when averaged over 4 days, indicating the feasibility of utilizing rudimentary meteorological observations to broaden the radiation database for the vast Arctic region of North America.