converting daily global radiation into hourly values

Question

I would like to convert daily global radiation into hourly solar radiation. While I do not know the terms, I tried using below equations I found in the papers but I have negative radiation values range between -75 to 100 j/m2/s. Any suggestions are welcome.

# radi(h) = r * radi(daily)

r <- (pi/24) * ( a + b * cos_d (w))* ((cos_d(w) - cos_d(ws)) / (sin_d(ws)-((pi/180) * ws * cos_d(ws))) )

a <- 0.409 + 0.5016 * sin_d(ws - 60)

b <- 0.6609 - 0.4767 * sin_d(ws - 60)

 # W = hour angle of the sun

w <- (360/24) * (h-12.0) # h = time of the day (hour)

ws <- acos_d(-tan_d(phi)*tan_d(sigma))) # ws = sunset hour angle (degree)

phi= 36.20 # phi = location latitude angle

# sigma= declination angle of the sun [degree]

sigma = 23.45 * sin_d (360* ((284+day)/365)) # day=DOY

After testing your equations, it seems to me that all negatives values fall after sunset and before sunrise: wouldn't it be that the equation for r is only meant for daytime hours? In this paper for instance they seem to limit the study from 8am to 4pm.
w <- (360/24) * (h-12.0) should probably be w <- (360/24) * (12.0-h) since w is zero for solar noon and the morning is positive. But that doesn't really change the negative results.
Why would like to convert daily global radiation into hourly solar radiation? The answer would help determine the right way to do it. For example, if you want insolation levels on Earth, you need an insolation database, rather than doing it from first principles - weather / climate effects are important.

Roland · Answer 1 · 2012-09-14 07:21:27Z

up vote 2 down vote

From ?Trig: "Angles are in radians, not degrees (i.e., a right angle is π/2)." You need to convert your angles from degrees to radians, when using the trigonometric functions.

Also cos-1 should probably be acos.

answered Sep 14 '12 at 7:21

Roland

	Using "aspace" package, the values were converted from radians to degrees – Mitra Rahmati Sep 14 '12 at 7:33
	No language that I know of uses degrees in trig functions. The point is that your code needs to have them in radians. I don't know what "aspace" is or what you're doing with it. – duffymo Sep 14 '12 at 9:37
	In `sin(ws-60)` I'm pretty sure 60 is in degree, whereas the result of `ws <- acos ...` is in radians. – Roland Sep 14 '12 at 9:43
	@duffymo "aspace" is a package in R. – Mitra Rahmati Sep 14 '12 at 9:56
	Look at that: R trig functions use radians, too: stat.ethz.ch/R-manual/R-patched/library/base/html/Trig.html – duffymo Sep 14 '12 at 10:02

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converting daily global radiation into hourly values

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