This study explores the possibility to calibrate the estimation of the global horizontal irradiation provided by HelioClim-3, a satellite-based surface solar irradiation database (available at www.soda-is.com). The main objective of this work is to refine such an estimation whose performances differ from one site to another. A first processing of the long-term measurements provided by nine weather stations located in Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur Region (South France) leads to the characterization of the clearness index error variability for that Region: this parameter is made up of a bias, a drift and 3 sinusoids with periods respectively equal to the astronomical year, half a year and one third of a year. We show that the phase of the dominant frequency (365 days) is similar whatever the tested site. We propose a simple calibration procedure based on a linear regression whose performances, in terms of mean bias error and root mean square error, depend on the beginning and the duration of the measurement campaign; to illustrate this point, the mean bias error on the global horizontal irradiation for nine sites considered systematically goes below 3% when considering a 6-month measurement campaign starting in May. We also show that the performances of the proposed calibration are also applicable to another site in the same Region for which the initial error exceeds 13%. A graphical representation allows visualizing the characterization of these measurement campaigns depending on the expected accuracy. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.