Solar Energy 80 (2006) 1055–1057

www.elsevier.com/locate/solener

Short Note

Solar radiation climate in Malawi

A. Madhlopa *

Department of Physics and Biochemical Sciences, Malawi Polytechnic, P/Bag 303, Blantyre 3, Malawi

Received 5 March 2003; received in revised form 9 May 2005; accepted 30 August 2005
Available online 30 September 2005

Communicated by: Associate Editor David Renne

Abstract

Recently, Diabaté et al. [Diabaté, L., Blanc, Ph., Wald, L., 2004. Solar climate in Africa. Solar Energy 76, 733–744]
created a map of solar radiation climate in Africa using clearness index for 62 sites. They established a solar climate class
II located in Malawi and Madagascar. However, their analysis did not include any irradiation data from a site in Malawi.
In this study, the solar radiation climate of Malawi has been studied using long-term global radiation data from a local site.
The mean monthly (Ktm) and seasonal (Kts) daily clearness indices for the site were computed. It is observed that Ktm has
two maxima in a year (Ktm = 0.58 in May and Ktm = 0.64 in September), in close conformity with findings of Diabaté et al.
(2004). Other results are presented and discussed.
Ó 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Global radiation; Clearness index; Tropical country; Long-term data

1. Introduction latitudes 9°22 0 and 17°3 0 S and longitudes 33°40 0 and

The intensity of solar radiation is an important
parameter in solar system design, testing and oper-
ation. However, this parameter varies with space
and time. Consequently, many authors including
Kudish et al. (1983), Al-Aruri (1990), Kudish and
Ianetz (1996) and Ianetz et al. (2000) have studied
solar climates of specific locations or regions for
the development of solar technologies and other
applications.
Some work has also been done on solar radi-
ation in Malawi, a tropical country located between
*
Fax: +265 1 670578.
E-mail address: amadhlopa@poly.ac.mw
35°55 0 E in Africa. Som (1979) showed that there is
great potential for the utilization of solar systems
in the country. Zingano (1986) studied the intensity
of global radiation for twelve sites, mainly based on
the sunshine duration. He found that there are: (a) a
general gradient of solar radiation over the country
in the north-to-south direction, and (b) local gradi-
ents of the mean monthly radiation due to altitude.
Zingano (2001) observed that lowlands have the
highest values of global solar radiation while up-
lands have the lowest in Malawi. Madhlopa (2001)
evaluated piecewise polynomial models for estimat-
ing diffuse radiation in Malawi. Using data from
one site, a new piecewise polynomial correlation
was developed for estimating the diffuse fraction

0038-092X/$ - see front matter Ó 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.solener.2005.08.007
1056 A. Madhlopa / Solar Energy 80 (2006) 1055–1057
from the daily clearness index. It was found that the
new correlation performed better than the other
similar correlations. Later, Madhlopa (2003) ana-
lyzed the distribution of hourly variability index of
sky clearness. It was found that the beta probability
model described the data well during most of the
months. More recently, Diabaté et al. (2004) created
a map of solar radiation climate in Africa using
clearness index for 62 sites, which did not include
any site in Malawi. These authors used irradiation
data from Sunsat 36 (Mozambique) to establish
the solar climate class II located in Malawi and
Madagascar. The data for this site was captured
over a very short period (1985–1986), and it was ex-
tracted from a map. Consequently, their findings
about Malawi need to be verified by using long-term
data from a site within the country. The objective of
this study is to examine solar radiation climate in
Malawi in order to contribute to the international
efforts in establishing solar radiation climates in
many parts of the world.
2. Data collection and processing
The Department of Meteorological Services in
Malawi is responsible for measurement and man-
agement of a data base of solar radiation. However,
long-term continuous data captured by pyranome-
ters is scarce. So, mean monthly daily global solar
radiation (Hm) is commonly computed from the
mean monthly daily duration of sunshine (S) using
the equation (Ångström, 1924)
H m ¼ ða þ b S=S o ÞH o ; ð1Þ
where Ho is the mean monthly daily extraterrestrial
radiation over the site, So is the mean monthly daily
possible sunshine duration, a and b are constants.
The ratio Hm/Ho yields the mean monthly daily
clearness index (Ktm).
In this study, the mean monthly daily global so-
lar radiation (Hm) data captured at Makoka weath-
er station (15°32 0 S, 35°11 0 E, 1029 m above mean sea
level) was used. This data was calculated from mea-
surements of sunshine duration over the period
1961–1990, with a = 0.25 and b = 0.50. These values
of a and b have been established by the Department
of Meteorological Services as suitable for this site.
There are two main seasons in Malawi: dry and
rainy seasons. So, based on these major climatic
conditions and the observed values of Ktm, four sea-
sonal classes were identified:
(a) Dry season
(i) May through July (D1)
(ii) August through October (D2)
(b) Rainy season
(i) January through April (R1)
(ii) November through December (R2)
In order of increasing time in a year, these seasonal
classes are as follows: R1 < D1 < D2 < R2. The
mean seasonal daily clearness index (Kts) was calcu-
lated for each class.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Monthly clearness index
Fig. 1 shows the variation of the mean monthly
daily clearness index (Ktm) for Makoka weather sta-
tion. It is observed that Ktm is relatively low from
January through February, and then it increases
to a maximum (Ktm = 0.58) in May. There is a slight
drop in the level of Ktm in June/July, with a distinct
maximum in September. The level of Ktm decreases
from 0.64 in September to 0.46 in December. The
variation in Ktm is attributed to the level of humidity
and position of the sun relative to the site. It is rainy
season from November through April, with gener-
ally high levels of moisture in the air from Decem-
ber through February (which reduces atmospheric
transparency). The air is dry in May, which results
in the observed minor peak. In addition, the air
mass is highest with frequent cloudy days in June,
when the sun is farthest from the site. This leads
to a significant attenuation of the solar radiation
before it reaches the ground. The atmospheric air
is very dry in September, with a relatively low air
0.65
0.60
Ktm
0.55
0.50
0.45
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Month
Fig. 1. Variation of the mean monthly daily clearness index (Ktm)
at Makoka weather station in Malawi.
 A. Madhlopa / Solar Energy 80 (2006) 1055–1057
0.65
0.60
Kts
0.55
0.50
0.45
R1 D1 D2
Seasonal class
Fig. 2. Variation of the mean seasonal daily clearness index (Kts)
during the rainy R1 (January–April), dry-cold D1 (May–July),
dry-hot D2 (August–October) and rainy-hot R2 (November–
December) for Makoka weather station in Malawi.
mass, which accounts for the observed major peak
during this month. Thereafter, the level of moisture
in the air starts increasing from October through
December, thereby reducing Ktm.
Diabaté et al. (2004) also found a minor peak in
the values of Ktm in May and major peak in Septem-
ber for the class II solar climate located in Malawi
and Madagascar, which is in close conformity with
the present results. It should also be mentioned that
the agreement between the corresponding values of
Ktm is most satisfactory during the dry season.
3.2. Seasonal daily clearness index
The variation of mean seasonal daily clearness
index (Kts) is shown in Fig. 2. It is seen that Kts is
maximum (0.62) during the dry hot season D2,
intermediate (0.57) during the dry cold season D1
and lowest (Kts  0.50) during the rainy season
(R1 and R2). It is observed that the major seasons
(dry and rainy) are reflected in the solar climate of
Malawi. The clearness of the sky is generally higher
during the dry season than the rainy season.
4. Conclusion
The solar radiation climate of Malawi has been
studied using long-term global radiation data from
Makoka weather station. This data was used to
compute the mean monthly (Ktm) and seasonal
1057
(Kts) daily clearness indices. It was found that Ktm
has maxima in May (0.58) and September (0.64),
in very close conformity with findings of Diabaté
et al. (2004). Generally, the agreement between the
solar climate reported by these authors and the pres-
ent one is most satisfactory during the dry season. It
appears that their findings about Malawi are rela-
tively accurate.
Acknowledgement
R2
The author is grateful to the Department of
Meteorological Services in Malawi for providing
the irradiation data.
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