A Comparative Study of the Available Measured Global Solar Radiation in Iraq

In Iraq, solar radiation field measurements are available only for very limited locations such as some universities and research centers. This article reviews and compares the measured monthly averaged global solar radiation data for Iraqi provinces and cities available in the literature and studies over the internet especially Google Scholar, Research Gate and IASJ.  The selected locations are Baghdad, Mosul, Tikrit, Rutba, Nasiriya, Kirkuk, Haditha, and Najaf.  The measured data is compared with the corresponding available satellite data from NASA and Meteonorm software and Root mean square error is calculated to test NASA and Meteonorm performance. The review results show that the maximum GSR in July in Haditha (8.3 kWhr/m2) while the minimum is in Mosul city in December (1.68 kWhr/m2). Baghdad measured monthly mean is about 5.20 kWhr/m2.