Insolation forecasting by a multi-stage neural network

Abstract

A single‐stage neural network has been proposed to forecast next day insolation. In this paper, a multi‐stage neural network is developed to reduce forecasting error further. A first‐stage neural network forecasts average atmospheric pressure for the next day from atmospheric pressure data of the previous day. A second‐stage neural network forecasts insolation level for the next day from the average atmospheric pressure and weather data of the previous day. A third‐stage neural network forecasts next day insolation from the insolation level and weather data of the previous day. Meteorological data of Omaezaki, Shizuoka at April 1994 were chosen as input data. The insolation values forecasted by the multi‐stage and the single‐stage neural networks are compared with the measurement values. The results show that the forecasting error is reduced to 24% (by the multi‐stage) from 33% (by the single‐stage). © 1998 Scripta Technica, Electr Eng Jpn, 125(4): 26–33, 1998