Application of Harmonic Analysis in the Preliminary Prediction of Air Temperature over Lagos and Abuja, Nigeria
B. C. Isikwue *
Department of Physics, Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Benue State, Nigeria.
O. I. Agada
Department of Physics, Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Benue State, Nigeria.
E. U. Utah
Department of Physics, University of Uyo, Nigeria.
F. N. Okeke
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Harmonic Analysis technique has been employed in predicting the hourly air temperature variations over Lagos and Abuja, Nigeria. The variations in hourly air temperatures over the two stations are periodic and thus have strong tendency of being repeated the next day, if all other atmospheric variables are constant. It was observed that the variation in hourly air temperature in the two stations is dominated by the first harmonic, thus it fluctuates by one cycle with a period of 24 hours. Invariably, harmonic equations could be applied to hourly temperature prediction even on a large scale data. The maximum hourly air temperature occurred two hours on the average after the maximum solar irradiance has occurred in each station. It was found that the temperature of the air at a particular hour is dependent on that of the previous hour.
Keywords: Harmonic analysis, air temperature, prediction, solar irradiance, Nigeria