Meteorological, radiation, and environmental data were
purchased from the Malaysian Meteorological Department, as
summarized in Table 1. Meteorological data for seven relevant
parameters were available for 15 stations (Figure 1). Data
availability for Hourly Global Radiation (MJ/m2
) varied. Data
were available for 2006-2009 for Bayan Lepas, Melaka, Subang
(near Kuala Lumpur), Kuantan, and Kuching and for 2006-2008
only at Sitiawan and Kota Bharu. Global solar radiation only
became available for Senai (near Johor Bahru) in 2009. We
evaluated several types of environmental (air quality) parameters
but focused on PM10 as the available pollutant parameter with
the most significant potential effecting on solar radiation in
Malaysia. Availability of the PM10 data also varied, with four
sites having data available from 1998 to 2009 and three
additional sites for 2008 to 2009; due to variability in pollutant
loads, our analysis focused on more recent years from 2006-2009.