Development of a new hybrid cloud cover detection method for all sky mapping

Local precise cloud detection techniques in the daytime are finding a wide range of applications in solar farms and for tracking the factory flue gases. Additionally, the cloud coverage is a measure for the site quality of astronomical observatories. The moon is itself a problem for astronomical observations. If there are astronomical objects near to moon, the light scattered by clouds from moon in the sky also has to be determined to extract from the observation schedule of robotic telescope. A novel hybrid method to deal with all-sky images in any conditions in daytime and nighttime is developed, and related algorithms are implemented in MATLAB. A GUI has been presented which interactively analyzes the images taken from all-sky cams. It plots a radar scan of the sky with clouds in polar coordinate systems. The systematic mean error is estimated at less than 3%.