Evaluation of classical parametric models for estimating solar radiation in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Turkey

Two new methodologies are presented in this paper to develop parametric models for estimation of daily global solar radiation based on sunshine duration and relative humidity as well as a review of fourteen different already exist parametric models which are based on air temperature, maximum temperature, minimum temperature, precipitation, sunshine duration and relative humidity. The proposed models improve the estimation results of the other fourteen models with average mean absolute error (MAE) of 0.947 MJ/m2 for Adana station, 1.086 MJ/m2 for Göksun station, 1.074 MJ/m2 for Tarsus station and 1.060 MJ/m2 for whole study area. Hence, the proposed models which significantly approximate to measurements from pyranometers can be useful for the modelling global solar radiation in Eastern Mediterranean Region.