Variations of the luminous efficacy of global and diffuse radiation and zenith luminance with weather conditions—description of a potential method to generate key daylight availability data from existing solar radiation data bases

Abstract The Atmospheric Sciences Research Center and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority have undertaken a comprehensive daylight resource assessment program which includes the coincident measurement of 25 radiometric and photometric quantities[1]. This paper contains selected results of the analysis performed on collected data. These include the study of the variations of global and diffuse luminous efficacy, and of zenith luminance with insolation conditions. These conditions are described using a parameterization based on two widely available radiative quantities (global and direct irradiance). Based on three 45-day monitoring periods, it appears that many of the observed variations can be accounted for from the knowledge of these two quantities.