APPLICATION OF REGRESSION AND MULTIPLE CORRELATION ANALYSIS TO MORNING HOURS SOLAR RADIATION IN LAPAI

Agbo¹ G. A., Alfa² B; Ibeh G. F. and Adamu² I. S.

¹Department of Industrial Physics, Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki

²Department of Physics, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai

e-mail: agbogodwina@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT

Solar radiation in Lapai within the morning hours has been estimated by correlating meteorological parameters. This was achieved by applying the first and second order regression and multiple correlation analysis method. The correlation coefficient based on the first and second order equations in temperature and relative humidity were 0.828, 0.692, 0.860 and 0.622 while the correlation coefficient based on the multiple correlations between solar radiations, temperature and relative humidity were 0.351. Validity tests were carried our using mean bias error (MBE), root mean square error (RMSE) and mean percentage error (MPE). The tests show that the errors were minimal in the first order equations in temperature and relative humidity. Comparison of the measured and predicted values of solar radiation based on the relative humidity and average temperature first order equations show a close agreement, and suggests the best equations to be used in estimating solar radiation in Lapai and its similar climatic condition.

Keywords: Solar radiation, multiple regression, correlation coefficient, meteorological parameter-temperature and relative humidity.