The measured data of global solar irradiation on a horizontal surface, the number of bright sunshine hours, and the amount of cloud cover for major cities of South Korea, during the period (1986-2005) are analyzed. Quality controls tests were carried out to eliminate spurious data and inaccurate measurements resulting from the cosine response error of the pyranometers. Accordingly, in six locations of South Korea where hourly global solar irradiation is currently measured, the hourly global solar irradiation was calculated using two Sunshine Fraction Radiation Model (SFRM) and a Cloud Cover Radiation Model (CRM), were compared and analyzed. Data for Ulsan, where hourly global solar irradiation is not currently measured, can be calculated from the data of the six other locations. The total solar irradiation on horizontal surfaces is separated into the beam and diffuses components. Empirical correlations for estimating the diffuse solar irradiation incident on horizontal surfaces have been proposed. The purpose of our work consists of predicting the solar irradiation on inclined surfaces based on horizontal measurements. To reach this goal, two studies were performed. They consisted of quantifying the accuracy of various well-known models. The first type of models calculated diffuse horizontal irradiations from global ones and the second type computed global irradiations on inclined planes from diffuse and global components on a horizontal surface. The proposed model can provide an alternative to building designers in estimating the solar irradiation on inclined surfaces where only the horizontal measurements are available. (C) 2013 Published by Elsevier Ltd.