Title: Cloud Radiative Effect Study Using Sky Camera,
Abstract: The analysis of clouds in the earth's atmosphere is important for a variety
of applications, viz. weather reporting, climate forecasting, and solar energy
generation. In this paper, we focus our attention on the impact of cloud on the
total solar irradiance reaching the earth's surface. We use weather station to
record the total solar irradiance. Moreover, we employ collocated ground-based
sky camera to automatically compute the instantaneous cloud coverage. We
analyze the relationship between measured solar irradiance and computed cloud
coverage value, and conclude that higher cloud coverage greatly impacts the
total solar irradiance. Such studies will immensely help in solar energy
generation and forecasting.