This work presents a methodology for estimating daily Linke turbidity factor for clear sky days from global horizontal irradiance information at solar noon and monthly mean values of the Linke turbidity factor. The analysis of the method proposed here have been made using the ESRA clear sky model to recalculate the direct normal irradiance using as input the new Linke turbidities. Ground data of three BSRN and six AEMet radiometric meteorological stations have been used for assessing the method. Linke turbidity factor estimated here exhibits higher fluctuations than the monthly means and the comparison of the solar irradiance recalculated with the ground data have shown a noticeable reduction of the root mean square deviation. On the other hand the new Linke turbidity estimations have been compared to those values obtained from normal beam irradiance measures. The discrepancies found point out the high dependence of the reliability of this method with the quality of the ground measurements used. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.