Evaluation of sunshine duration from cloud data in Egypt

In this study, three empirical formulae have been deduced to estimate relative sunshine duration, n/N, using readily available observed data of cloud amount, C, in Egypt. The monthly mean values of n/N and C recorded at 34 stations during the period (1990–2005) have been used in the present study. The three deduced formulae have been verified for any locality in Egypt which lies above (zone 1) and below latitude 30° (zone 2) and for the whole country of Egypt. The agreement between measured and estimated values of the three deduced formulae were remarkable. It was found that the maximum possible error of estimated values, e (%), of the three deduced empirical formulae have not exceeded ±7.27% with mean percentage error (MPE) values range from −0.62% to +0.81%; meanwhile the values of statistical tests of main bias error (MBE) and root mean square error (RMSE) are very close to zero. It has been concluded that Egypt's deduced formula gives precise estimations for n/N and was recommended for use at any location in Egypt. The sunshine distribution and its percentage frequency over Egypt were also studied. The results revealed that latitudinal dependent of n/N. Egypt has minimum value of n/N (0.48) during January at the northern part of the country and maximum value (0.92) during June at the southern part.