Pergamon

PII: S0038 092X( 00 )00008 6

Solar Energy Vol. 69, No. 1, pp. 4553, 2000

2000 Elsevier Science Ltd
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0038-092X / 00 / $ - see front matter

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SKY CONDITIONS AT ILORIN AS CHARACTERIZED BY CLEARNESS

INDEX AND RELATIVE SUNSHINE
S. O. UDO
Department of Physics, University of Calabar, Calabar, Nigeria
Received 19 October 1998; revised version accepted 2 November 1999
Communicated by RICHARD PEREZ

AbstractClearness index (KT ) and relative sunshine (S) are used to characterize the sky conditions at Ilorin,
Nigeria (latitude: 88329N, longitude: 48349E, elevation: 375 m), a tropical location. Daily analysis shows that
the majority of the days are relatively cloudy with hardly any very clear or overcast days. Based on monthly
averaged KT , the monthly variations of cumulative frequency of KT , f, and prevalent climatic conditions, the
annual sky conditions have been classified into six patterns: three patterns each for the two broad seasons, dry
and rainy. The trend in the seasonal variation of S lends further credence to this six seasonal pattern.
Determined cumulative frequency curves further confirm the assertion that Liu and Jordans generalized
cumulative distribution curves (CDC) are not applicable to tropical locations hence available design
procedures based on these curves should be reconsidered [Liu, B. Y. U and Jordan, R. C. (1960). The
Inter-relationaship and characteristic distribution of direct, diffuse and total solar radiation. Solar Energy 4,
119]. An empirical expression relating monthly maximum clearness index (Kmax ) and the monthly average
clearness index (KT ) is presented and recommended for tropical locations. Comparative analysis shows that a
similar expression by Saunier et al. is also appropriate to this location while that of Hollands and Huget is
quite inadequate. [Saunier G. Y., Reddy T. A. and Kumar S. (1987). On monthly probability distribution
function of daily global irradiation values appropriate for both tropical and temperate locations. Solar Energy
38, 169177; Hollands K. G. T. and Huget R. G. (1983) A probability density function for clearness index,
with applications. Solar Energy 30, 195]. Furthermore, the values of the minimum clearness index (0.120.24)
for Ilorin are noticed to be much higher than the generally accepted value of 0.05 for overcast sky conditions.
The results are further compared, especially with those of Ideriah and Suleman [Ideriah, F. J. K. and Suleman,
S. O. (1989). Sky conditions at Ibadan during 19751980. Solar Energy 43, 325330.] and Akuffo and
Brew-Hammond [Akuffo, F. O. and Brew-Hammond, A. (1993). The frequency distribution of global solar
radiation at Kumasi. Solar Energy 50, 145154.] for Ibadan and Kumasi, all in the West African sub-region.
Although the locations are slightly different in agro-climatic conditions, results are found to be very
comparable. 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

the incoming global radiation and therefore indicates both the level of availability of solar radiation and changes in atmospheric conditions in a
given locality while S is a measure of the cloud
cover. Kd is the cloudiness index and Kdd is a
factor which mirrors the effectiveness of the sky
in scattering the incoming radiation. These parameters have been used to establish sky conditions at
various places (Liu and Jordan, 1960; Choudhury,
1963; Barbaro et al., 1981; Al-Riahi et al., 1990;
Akuffo and Brew-Hammond, 1993). In Nigeria, a
similar study was carried out by Ideriah and
Suleman (1989) for Ibadan.
In 1960, Liu and Jordan in particular, studied
the sky conditions at various locations in terms of
KT , Kd and Kdd and observed among others that
the long term distribution of daily global irradiation over a month, corresponding to a given value
of monthly average clearness index KT is almost
independent of location and of the month. This
assertion was based on the statistical analysis of

1. INTRODUCTION

One of the ways of easily estimating the incident

solar radiation incident on a horizontal or inclined
surface, which is a requirement for design purposes, is by establishing the sky conditions at the
locality. These conditions can be quantified by the
following parameters: (i) the clearness index,
KT ( 5 H /H0 ) (ii) the relative sunshine, S( 5 N /N0 )
(iii) the diffuse ratio or cloudiness index,
Kd ( 5 Hd /H ) and (iv) the diffuse coefficient,
Kdd ( 5 Hd /H0 ) (Ideriah and Suleman, 1989).
Here, H represents the daily global solar radiation, H0 the daily extraterrestrial radiation, Hd the
daily diffuse radiation, N the daily sunshine
duration and N0 the maximum possible sunshine
duration or daylength.
KT gives the percentage depletion by the sky of

E-mail: soudo@unical.anpa.net.ng
45

46

S. O. Udo

daily global irradiation on the horizontal surface

for 27 locations, each with approximately 5 years
of data. As a result, they proposed a set of
generalized KT cumulative distribution curves
(CDC) which have been used, since then by many
researchers. One outright consequence of Liu and
Jordan statement is that the underlying corresponding generalized probability density function
(PDF) must also be of general validity and
thereby applicable to any location and month.
Bendt et al. (1981) using a more extensive data
from 90 stations, each with approximately 20
years of observation essentially confirmed Liu and
Jordans observation, that the frequency distribution of daily global solar irradiation on the
horizontal, for a monthly period, corresponding to
a specified value of KT , is almost independent of
the location and the time of the year. Moreover,
Bendt et al. showed that the generalized CDC
may be obtained from PDF which assumes,
among others, random daily insolation sequences.
The other consequence of the generalized CDC
is that the maximum and minimum values of the
clearness index for a particular month, as
specified by KT , are also independent of location
and season. Bendt et al. suggested a constant
value for the minimum (Kmin 5 0.05) which corresponds, of course, to overcast sky conditions.
Hollands and Huget (1983) proposed an expression for the maximum value (Kmax ) that depends
on only KT as:
Kmax 5 0.6313 1 0.267 K T 2 11.9(K T 2 0.75)8
(1)
However, classical results obtained by Hawas
and Muneer (1984), Saunier et al. (1987) and
Ideriah and Suleman (1989) for three tropical
locations, India, Bangkok in Thailand and Ibadan
in Nigeria respectively threw into question the
universal validity of Liu and Jordan generalized
CDC. Saunier et al., in particular, showed that
their results disagreed with the generalized CDC
mainly because of the differences in the values of
Kmax as well as the underlying PDF. Consequently, they proposed an expression for Kmax ,
based on observations in Thailand, to be used
with the Bendt et al. CDC:
Kmax 5 0.362 1 0.59K T

(2)

Additionally, they opined that Kmax defined by

Eq. (1) might be suitable for other tropical
locations. Akuffo and Brew-Hammond (1993)
have shown that Eq. (2) gave a more satisfactory
agreement to observed Kmax than Eq. (1), for the

location, Kumasi (a tropical location), that they

studied. The applicability of these two equations
is investigated in this study.
Analysis of data from other tropical locations
by Ideriah and Suleman (1989), Feuillard et al.
(1989) and Akuffo and Brew-Hammond (1993)
have corroborated the Saunier et al. conclusion
that the generalized CDC is not valid universally.
Feuillard et al. specifically noted that the CDC for
tropical locations exhibit a more pronounced Sshape than for temperate climates, as a consequence of more pronounced peaks in the corresponding PDFs.
The invalidity of the generalized CDC is not
peculiar to the tropics but elsewhere as shown by
the work of Olseth and Skartveit (1984) in a
temperate climate. They observed that universal
values of Kmax , as suggested by the generalized
CDC are invalid, rather, they opined that Kmax is
climatologically dependent.
The aims of this work are to quantify the sky
conditions at Ilorin as characterized by KT and S
and to ascertain the validity of the generalized
CDC curves for a typical Nigerian location.
Moreover, this work will be compared with the
observations of especially Ideriah and Suleman in
Ibadan and Akuffo and Brew-Hammond in Kumasi. These two towns and Ilorin are located in the
West African sub-region, although Ibadan and
Kumasi have different agro-climatic conditions
from Ilorin. Ibadan and Kumasi are in rain forest
vegetation and tropical rain forest climate (Akuffo
and Brew-Hammond, 1993) while Ilorin is in the
transition zone between the rain forest of the
South and Savannah of the North.

1.1. Equations used and data base

In this study, KT and S are used to quantify the
sky condition mainly due to availability of data.
H0 is evaluated from the equation (Iqbal, 1983):
24
H0 5 ] Isc E0 [(p / 180)w s (sin d sin f )
p
1 (cos d cos f sin w s )]

(3)

where Isc 5solar constant in energy unit5136733.6

54921 KJ m 22 h 21 51367 W m 22 , E0 is the
eccentricity correction factor of the Earths orbit,
d the solar declination, w s is the sunrise hour
angle and f is the geographical latitude. E0 is
evaluated from (Spencer, 1971):
E0 5 1.000110 1 0.034221 cos G
1 0.0001280 sin G 1 0.000719 cos 2G
1 0.000077 sin 2G

(4)

Sky conditions at Ilorin as characterized by clearness index and relative sunshine

where G, in radians, is called the day angle and

defined by:
2p (d n 2 1)
G 5 ]]]
365

(5)

where d n , is the day number of the year.

Solar declination, d, is evaluated according to
Spencer (1971) by

2.1. Daily clearness index

(6)

The sunrise hour angle, w s , is evaluated using:

w s 5 cos 21 (2tan f tan d )

(7)

The daylength, N(52w s ) when expressed in hours

is as follows:
2
N 5 ] cos 21 (2tan f tan d )
15

Suleman (1989) and Akuffo and Brew-Hammond

(1993) shows that the results obtained here are
quite consistent and agree with other findings for
tropical regions. Seasonal variation of global solar
radiation is reported elsewhere (Udo and Aro,
1999).

2. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

d 5 (0.006918 2 0.399912 cos G

1 0.070257 sin G 2 0.006758 cos 2F
1 0.000907 sin 2G 2 0.002697 cos 3G
1 0.00148 sin 3G ) (180 /p )

47

(8)

Measurement of H values were made according

to the International Scale of Pyheliometry (IPS),
1977, using Eppley Precision Spectral Pyranometer complete with data acquisition system, CR10
Campbell data-logger, and a storage module. The
instrument was calibrated before and after data
acquisition by Eppley Laboratory and World
Radiation Centre, Davos respectively. Other details concerning this instrument and method of
data acquisition are described elsewhere (Udo and
Aro, 1999). The monthly average temperature at
Ilorin is almost uniform throughout the year with
a mean of 30.158C while the average annual
rainfall is about 873 mm. The daily sunshine
duration, N, was obtained from the Nigerian
Meteorological services, Oshodi and is for the
Ilorin International Airport: a distance of about 12
km as the crow flies NW from the study site. This
distance is within the distance for which radiationsunshine data can be reliably extrapolated
(Baker and Skaggs, 1984; WMO, 1981). Apart
from this, the topography and climate of Ilorin are
quite uniform. Daily sunshine duration were
measured using CampbellStokes recorder with
heat sensitive paper.
All data covered a period of two years (September 1992 to August 1994) and are divided into
two annual sets. A two-year data analysis seems a
bit inadequate for major climatological conclusions to be drawn. However, analysis showed that
the small duration possesses no major limitations
to the conclusions derivable.
Comparison of results with those of Ideriah and

Fig. 1 represents the daily clearness index for

the two years while the seasonal values are in
Table 1.
One distinct feature of the daily clearness index
is that relatively clear days mainly exist in the dry
season months of January, February, March,
November and December and to some extent
early and late rainy season months of April and
October respectively. However, one also notices
that during the cloudy period, typical clear days
could have KT values higher or comparable to
values for the relatively clear dry season months.
This can be attributable to the clearing off of even
dust particles by rain the previous day or days, so
that the sky becomes very clear the subsequent
day or days.
Furthermore, the figures show that the occurrence of very clear skies (KT $0.65) is very rare
in Ilorin. Throughout the two-year duration under
study, only a total of 11 days were KT $0.65; 8
days in 1993 data set in the months of February
(1), March (1), April (1), May (3), October (2) and
3 days in 1994 data set in the months of May (1),

Fig. 1. Daily variation of clearness index. (A) 1993, (B)

JanAug 1994 and SepDec 1992.

48

S. O. Udo

Table 1. Monthly averages of clearness index, K T , relative sunshine S

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sept

Oct

Nov

Dec

1993
KT
S

0.52
0.53

0.57
0.64

0.55
0.61

0.53
0.57

0.50
0.61

0.46
0.46

0.39
0.33

0.40
0.34

0.44
0.43

0.50
0.57

0.53
0.69

0.50
0.60

1994 a
KT
S

0.46
0.55

0.51
0.50

0.54
0.67

0.49
0.57

0.50
0.57

0.48
0.54

0.36
0.32

0.34
0.29

0.40
0.34

0.51
0.54

0.53
0.63

0.52
0.68

JanAug 1994; SepDec 1992.

October (1) and November (1). On the other hand,

the occurrence of cloudy skies (0.12,KT #0.34)
is very common especially in the rainy season
months (from approximately day number 170 to
270).
The literature is rather silent on the values of
minimum clearness index for tropical locations.
We realized that the values for Ilorin are much
higher (0.120.24) than the generally accepted
value (0.05) for overcast sky conditions. The
quoted minima only occurred for a total of 23
days in the two-year period under study (11 in
1993 and 12 in 1994). This indicates that in spite
of the generally cloudy conditions in Ilorin, the
skies are hardly overcast the whole day.

2.2. Classification of monthly mean clearness

index
The seasonal variation of KT is as presented in
Table 1. In 1993, the maxima (major and minor)
were in FebruaryMarch and November. The
minima (major and minor) were in JulyAugust
and December. The average K T for the year was
0.4960.06.
In 1994, the maxima (major and minor) were in
March and November respectively. The minima
were in JulyAugust and January. The average K T
for the year was 0.4760.07.
For the two-year monthly averages, the maxima
were in FebruaryMarch and and November and
the minima were in JulyAugust and January (see
Fig. 5). The grand yearly average of K T was
0.4860.06. As reported by Akuffo and BrewHammond (1993) the seasonal variations in K T
for Kumasi and Ibadan follow the same trend with
peaks in February / March and November, and
troughs in December / January and August; this is
quite consistent with the above results, although
with average K T , values of 0.43 and 0.47 for
Kumasi and Ibadan respectively against 0.48 for
Ilorin, it means that the sky at Ilorin is less cloudy
than those of Ibadan and Kumasi. This, of course,
is as expected considering the differences in agroclimatic conditions of these locations.

A value of 0.60 is reported by Bashahu and

Nkundabakura (1994) for Dakar (Lat. 148439N), a
town in the West African sub-region but farther
north than Ilorin. A similar value of 0.43 is
reported by Awachie and Okeke (1982) for
Nsukka (Nigeria) and was explained in terms of
the heavily overcast weather prevalent there
throughout the year.
Based on the monthly average clearness index,
K T , monthly variations of cumulative frequency,
f, and the prevalent climatic conditions broad,
seasonal patterns can be identified as follows:
(i)

(ii)

Dry season:
(a)
December, January,
(b)
November, February, March,
(c)
April

K T 0.50
K T 0.54
K T 0.51

Rainy season:
(a)
July, August,
(b)
June, September,
(c)
May, October,

K T 0.38
K T 0.45
K T 0.51

In other words, while there are two broad seasonal

patterns, namely, the dry season (November to
April) and rainy season (May to October), the
dry season has three distinct periods. These are:
(i) the Harmattan period (December to January)
when cold and dust-laden north-easterly trade
winds from the Sahara desert keep the atmosphere
over Ilorin and its environs heavily overcast with
dust for many days, with characteristic hazy and
cloud free weather conditions (ii) the cloud and
dust-free period (November, February and March)
of mainly high irradiation and clear weather
condition and (iii) April, which forms a transition
period between the clear weather condition of
FebruaryMarch and the rainy season. At times
it rains during this month and could as well be
classified under rainy season. During the rainy
season, July and August stand out clearly as
months of least average monthly clearness index.
The two months immediately before and after
JulyAugust (i.e. June and September) have about
the same average clearness index; and so are the

Sky conditions at Ilorin as characterized by clearness index and relative sunshine

two months of May and October which are each

two months duration from JulyAugust. However, it should be noted that the months of April,
May and October have almost the same KT even
though April is classified under dry season
months and the other two are in the rainy season
months. This implies that for Ilorin, these three
months could be regarded at times as rainy season
months and at times as dry season months (they
really are transition months), especially considering the fact that Ilorin is located in the transition
zone between the deciduous forest (i.e. rain forest
vegetation) of the South and the Savannah of the
North. There is therefore a total of six identifiable
monthly patterns.
A similar pattern of classification was carried
out by Ideriah and Suleman (1989) for Ibadan
(latitude 78269N, longitude 38549E). The general
pattern of classification is almost the same with
only minor changes as to which bin does each
month specifically belong. For example, in their
classification, the months of February to April
belong together as against April being on its own
in this classification. August, the month with the
least K T value of 0.35 stands alone and so is the
month of May as against JulyAugust being the
months with least K T value of approximately 0.38.
May and October belong together in this classification. In Ideriah and Sulemans study, two subdivisions were obtained for dry and four subdivisions for the rainy season as against three
sub-divisions each, in this study. The values of K T
in each category are however almost the same.
The very few discrepancies may probably be due
to the fact that the two locations (Ilorin and
Ibadan) though near each other belong to slightly
different agro-climatic conditions. The classification of November, February and March together
as dry season months with relatively clear skies in
this study is however supported by Akuffo and

49

Brew-Hammond (1993) classification of weather

pattern in Kuniasi, Ghana (latitude 6.728N, longitude 1.68W).
Lastly, one main distinct feature of the seasonal
variation of clearness index analysis is that on the
average it ranges from 0.37 to 0.54 implying that
the atmosphere at Ilorin is almost always cloudy
throughout the year. It is therefore expected that a
large fraction of the global solar radiation reaching the horizontal surface here is diffuse. Hence a
major projected influence of this is that concentrating devices such as parabolic mirrors whose
operation is based on incident beam radiation will
not be very effective at Ilorin as at locations
where K T values are higher than these.

2.3. Cumulative frequency distribution

Cumulative frequency is defined here as:
number of days with KT # KT (fixed)
f 5 ]]]]]]]]]] 3 100%
number of days in month
The monthly percentage cumulative frequency,
f, of KT is presented in Table 2 and the plots of f
corresponding to each of the five (April in this
case is classified along with May and October)
seasonal, monthly clearness index pattern are
shown in Fig. 2.
It is observed that each of the five monthly
groups, as also observed by Ideriah and Suleman
(1989), has a distinct pattern of frequency distribution with the curves orderly from K T 50.38 to
0.54, except that of the Harmattan period (K T 50.50)
which falls out of tune with the others owing to
the predominant effects of high concentration of
dust particles. The above results are quite consistent with the observations of Ideriah and
Suleman and Akuffo and Brew-Hammond giving
room to methodological differences: Here suitable
long term (two years) monthly averages irrespec-

Table 2. Monthly percentage cumulative frequency f, of the daily clearness index KT , and monthly average values of K T
(September 1992August 1994)
0.1

0.2

0.3

Values of f for KT #KT (fixed)

0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7

0.8

0.9

1.0

Monthly
average KT

0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
1.62
0.00
1.67
0.00
0.00
0.00

0.00
0.00
1.62
1.67
1.62
1.67
11.29
11.29
5.00
1.62
1.67
0.00

1.61
1.79
1.62
8.36
8.07
6.67
38.71
38.71
25.00
1.62
3.33
11.29

24.19
1072
40.32
53.33
64.52
81.67
100
75. 1
56. 7
19. 6
10. 0
77. 2

100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100

100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100

100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100

0.4960.05
0.5460.07
0.5560.07
0.5160.11
0.5060.10
0.4760.09
0.3860.10
0.3760.09
0.4360.11
0.5160.09
0.5360.07
0.5160.05

Month
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December

80.21
48.22
98.39
98.34
93.55
100
100
98.39
98.34
66.13
55.00
96.78

100
98.32
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
95.16
98.34
100

100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100

50

S. O. Udo

Fig. 2. Experimental cumulative frequency, f, curves for monthly KT .

tive of the year to year fluctuations was selected.

This is the approach used by Ideriah and Suleman
(1989), Liu and Jordan (1960) and Saunier et al.
(1987), as against frequencies being fitted to
single months which have approximately the same
monthly mean KT as used by Akuffo and BrewHammond (1993), Bendt et al. (1981), and Olseth
and Skartveit (1984). Olseth and Skartveit have
shown that for the same database, the two methods should yield comparable results unless the
long term monthly average, as used in this
approach, is taken over months which are diverse
to quite a typical extent. For standard deviations,
which was a measure of the diversity, as large as
0.1 a very good agreement between the two
methods was obtained.
To further confirm or not the universal applicability of Liu and Jordans CDC, and following the method of Ideriah and Suleman (1989),
the monthly KT curves of Liu and Jordan for
monthly averages of KT 50.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6 and 0.7
are plotted in Fig. 2 also. The results show that
the pattern obtained for Ilorin is quite different
from that of Liu and Jordan: the CDC curves at
this location exhibit a more pronounced S-shape
than that of Liu and Jordan as earlier observed by
Feuillard et al. (1989).
Following Akuffo and Brew-Hammond (1993),
cumulative frequency curves for clearness indices
(0.4 and 0.5) for Ilorin, Ibadan and Kumasi are
plotted in (Fig. 3). This was done so as to observe
the similarities and possible differences existing at
these locations since according to Akuffo and
Brew-Hammond, climatic factors have strong
influence on Kmax , Kmin and CDCs. The CDC for
K T 50.4 (Fig. 3a) for the three locations disagree
to an extent while that of KT 50.5 (Fig. 3b) are in
good agreement. Akuffo and Brew-Hammond
also obtained similar results while comparing
Ibadan data with that of Kumasi and attributed the

level of discrepancy to variation in values of Kmax

and Kmin . This result further supports the fact that
the two-year data are representative of Ilorin
climate.
By these results, which confirms the findings of
earlier investigators (Hawas and Muneer, 1984;
Saunier et al., 1987; Feuillard et al., 1989; Ideriah
and Suleman, 1989; Akuffo and Brew-Hammond,
1993) as regards the tropics, it means that Liu and
Jordans CDC is not applicable to the tropics, at
least.

2.4. Maximum and minimum clearness index

As earlier mentioned, Saunier et al. (1987)
showed that their results disagreed with the
generalized CDC mainly because of the differences in the values of Kmax as well as the

Fig. 3.

Sky conditions at Ilorin as characterized by clearness index and relative sunshine

underlying PDF. Consequently, they proposed Eq.

(2) for the Thailand environment they worked.
Akuffo and Brew-Hammond showed that Eq. (2)
was more applicable to their environment than Eq.
(1).
In this work, linear regression equations between Kmax and K T and the corresponding regression coefficient, r, were:
For 1993 data set
Kmax 5 0.30 1 0.66K T , r 5 76.22%

(10)

For 1994 data set

Kmax 5 0.31 1 0.63K T , r 5 75.26%

(11)

with the overall average giving

Kmax 5 0.31 1 0.63K T , r 5 83.37%

(12)

The values of Kmax for 1993 data set and the

corresponding values calculated from Eqs. (1, 2
and 12) are given in Table 3.
To compare the predictive efficiencies of the
three predictive equations, the following parameters were determined for each equation: Mean
bias error (MBE), mean absolute bias error
(MABE) and root mean square error (RMSE) and
are defined as follows:
MBE

MABE

RMSE

FO (H 2 H )G /n
FO (uH 2 H u)G /n
HFO (H 2 H ) G /nJ
i,c

i,m

i,c

i,m

i,c

1/2

i,m

where Hi,c and Hi,m are the calculated and measured values respectively, and n is the total
number of observations. Positive and negative
MBE show overestimation and underestimation
respectively. The sum enlightens us concerning
the long term predictive values of the correlation.

MABE gives information on short term predictive

quality of a correlation. The lower the error terms,
the more accurate the estimate.
In all cases the MBE, MABE and RMSE were
higher for Eq. (1) than the other two equations.
The values of the error terms for Eqs. (2) and
(12) are comparable although that of Eq. (12) are
slightly lower in all cases, and it almost always
overestimates apart from the month of May in
which it underestimated.
Although Eq. (12) may be locality dependent, it
can be seen that its coefficients are quite comparable to that of Eq. (2) and as such is recommended for use in the tropics, if not universally.
As also observed by Akuffo and Brew-Hammond, the Kmin , values observed at Ilorin do not
show any definite seasonal trend except for the
relatively high values during the dry season
months of November, December, January and
February. Moreover, the observed values are
higher than 0.05 which as mentioned earlier is the
minimum value generally accepted for overcast
sky conditions.

2.5. Daily and monthly mean relative sunshine

Fig. 4 represents the daily variation of relative
sunshine S for the two years. The monthly
variation of S are in Table 1.
One definite feature of Fig. 4 is that the
sunshine fraction was as low as 0 and as high as
0.92. In other words, the daily range is as high as
0.92 as against 0.57 obtained for KT . This further
confirms the fact that the variation of S is largely
influenced by atmospheric conditions such as
cloudiness and turbidity rather than the movement

Table 3. Experimental monthly, Kmax and Kmin with the

calculated Kmax from Eqs. (1, 2, 12) for 1993 data set
Experimental

Calculated Kmax

Month

Kmax

Kmin

Eq. (1)

January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
MBE
MABE
RMSE

0.63
0.69
0.66
0.66
0.68
0.60
0.53
0.59
0.59
0.65
0.61
0.56

0.43
0.47
0.18
0.21
0.21
0.21
0.22
0.19
0.23
0.17
0.36
0.43

0.77
0.78
0.78
0.77
0.76
0.75
0.73
0.74
0.75
0.76
0.77
0.76
0.14
0.14
0.14

Eq. (2)

Eq. (12)

0.67
0.70
0.69
0.67
0.66
0.63
0.59
0.60
0.62
0.66
0.67
0.66
0.03
0.04
0.04

0.64
0.67
0.66
0.64
0.63
0.60
0.56
0.56
0.57
0.63
0.64
0.63
0.00
0.02
0.03

51

Fig. 4. Daily variation of relative sunshine, S.

52

S. O. Udo

Fig. 5. Seasonal variation (average) of clearness index, KT ,

and relative sunshine, S.

of the sun in the sky while KT is influenced by

both.
Analysis of monthly mean of daily relative
sunshine shows that it has almost similar pattern
as KT .
In 1993, the maxima (major and minor) were in
FebruaryMarch and November. The minima
(major and minor) in JulyAugust and January.
The average was 0.5360.11.
In 1994, the maxima were in March and
December while the minima were in JulyAugust
and January. The average for the year was
0.5260.13.
For the two year monthly averages, the maxima
were in March and November while the minima
were in JulyAugust and January. The average
for the year was 0.5360.12.
Fig. 5 shows the pattern of variation of S and
KT (average values of the two year period). As
expected, the two are highly related with S values
being consistently higher than KT values in all the
months except the very cloudy and wet months of
July, August and September. The trend in the
seasonal variation of S lends further credence to
the six seasonal patterns earlier identified for
Ilorin using KT , f and climatic conditions.
It should also be noted that on a monthly basis,
S values range from 0.32 to 0.66 as against KT
values ranging from 0.37 to 0.55. In other words,
the S values range of 0.34 is almost double that of
KT of 0.18.
3. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

The sky conditions at Ilorin for a two-year

period (September 1992August 1 994) as characterized by clearness index and relative sunshine
are represented on both daily and monthly bases.
Apart from classifying the sky conditions, the
other objective was to derive the frequency dis-

tribution of daily global irradiation in Ilorin and

compare the results with the generalized curve of
Liu and Jordan (1960) as presented by Bendt et
al. (1981). This is because a survey of the
literature showed that the generalized curves are
not applicable to the tropics primarily due to
lower values of the maximum clearness index,
Kmax at locations where they were determined. I
therefore decided to also verify the applicability
of the empirical expression for Kmax proposed by
Hollands and Huget (1983) and Saunier et al.
(1987) that depends on only monthly mean
clearness index. Finally, for consistency of results
I have compared the results largely with that of
Ibadan and Kumasi and to a small extent Dakar
and Nsukka which although having a slightly
different agro-climatic conditions are in the same
West African sub-region. The following are,
therefore, the major conclusions derivable from
this work.
1. The sky conditions at Ilorin have been classified into six patterns as defined by the monthly
averages of daily clearness index and climatic
conditions; this is further supported by the
distribution of the monthly averages of relative
sunshine. The classification is similar to that of
Ideriah and Suleman (1989) and Akuffo and
Brew-Hammond (1993) for Ibadan and Kumasi respectively bearing in mind the slight
difference in agro-climatic conditions between
Ilorin and these other locations.
2. On a daily basis, the clearness index, KT , in
this location ranges from 0.12 to 0.69 against
the relative sunshine S ranging from 0 to 0.92.
On monthly basis KT ranges from 0.37 to 0.55
with an average of 0.49 against S values
ranging from 0.32 to 0.66 with an average of
0.53 confirming the fact that the variation of S
is largely influenced by atmospheric conditions
such as cloudiness and turbidity rather than the
movement of the sun in the sky while KT is
influenced by both.
3. Although the literature is rather silent on
values of Kmin for the tropics, I realized that
the values for Ilorin are much higher (0.12
0.24) than the generally accepted value of 0.05
for overcast sky conditions. This implies that
in spite of the generally cloudy conditions in
Ilorin, the skies are hardly overcast for the
whole day. This confirms earlier works by
Ideriah and Suleman (1989) and, Akuffo and
Brew-Hammond (1993).
4. The majority of days in Ilorin are relatively
cloudy and uniform but there are hardly any
days that are very clear or very cloudy. Also it

Sky conditions at Ilorin as characterized by clearness index and relative sunshine

is noted that a clear day can occur at any time

of the year although the chances are higher for
such occurrence during clear months.
5. An empirical equation relating Kmax and K T is
established, Eq. (12). The results show that the
empirical equation proposed by Saunier et al.
(1987) for Kmax may be satisfactory for the
conditions in Ilorin, although it has a slight
tendency to overestimate. The equation of
Hollands and Huget (1983) is however not
appropriate as it predicts much higher values
than observed.
6. The generalized CDC as presented by Liu and
Jordan are not applicable to the tropics, including Ilorin. Hence, available design procedures
based on these curves should be re-considered.
AcknowledgementsThe author acknowledges the contributions made by the Nigerian Meteorological Services, Oshodi,
Lagos in making available data on sunshine hours. The
guidance and contributions in terms of facilitating the measurement of global solar radiation by Prof. R.T. Pinker, Dr. F.
Miskolczi (Department of Meteorology, University of Maryland, College Park, USA) and Prof. T.O. Aro and Mr. Moses
Iziomon (Department of Physics, University of Ilorin, Nigeria)
are greatly appreciated.

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