New empirical models for global solar radiation over Bahrain

New empirical models have been developed in this study to facilitate the estimation of global solar radiation for Bahrain from commonly measured meteorological parameters. The objective is to minimize the errors and the number of parameters incorporated in the models over the existing ones. The results obtained are very encouraging. When the estimated values were compared with the measured ones, the models provided very high correlation factors of over 0.99 and absolute maximum errors of only 1.9-7.9%. The best models have been established when the monthly mean daily data were treated at intervals, namely January-June and July-December. These models are dependent on one to three measured inputs, such as temperature, bright sunshine duration, relative humidity and extraterrestrial solar radiation. The present models can, thus, be recommended for the State of Bahrain. (author)