NREL Pyrheliometer Comparison: September 16 to 27, 2013 (NPC-2013)
Abstract
Accurate measurements of direct normal (beam) solar irradiance from pyrheliometers are important for the development and deployment of solar energy conversion systems, improving our understanding of the Earth's energy budget for climate change studies, and for other science and technology applications involving solar flux. Providing these measurements places many demands on the quality system used by the operator of commercially available radiometers. Maintaining accurate radiometer calibrations traceable to an international standard is the first step in producing research-quality solar irradiance measurements. As with all measurement systems, absolute cavity radiometers and other types of pyrheliometers are subject to performance changes over time. NREL has developed and maintained a group of absolute cavity radiometers with direct calibration traceability to the World Radiometric Reference (WRR). These reference instruments are used by NREL to calibrate pyrheliometers and pyranometers using the ISO 17025 accredited Broadband Outdoor Radiometer Calibration (BORCAL) process (Reda et al. 2008). NPCs are held annually at the Solar Radiation Research Laboratory (SRRL) in Golden, Colorado. Open to all pyrheliometer owners/operators, e.g. NREL, NASA, NIST, NOAA, USA industry and academia, USA-DOE and other national laboratories, and national and international organizations. Each NPC provides an opportunity to determine the unique World Radiometric Reference (WRR)more »
- Authors:
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Solar Energy Technologies Program
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1111204
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/TP-3B10-60749
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC36-08GO28308
- Resource Type:
- Technical Report
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 14 SOLAR ENERGY; 47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION; WRR; TRACEABILITY; CALIBRATION; SOLAR; ATMOSPHERIC; CAVITY; PYRHELIOMETER; Solar Energy - Radiation
Citation Formats
Reda, I., Dooraghi, M., and Habte, A. NREL Pyrheliometer Comparison: September 16 to 27, 2013 (NPC-2013). United States: N. p., 2013.
Web. doi:10.2172/1111204.
Reda, I., Dooraghi, M., & Habte, A. NREL Pyrheliometer Comparison: September 16 to 27, 2013 (NPC-2013). United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/1111204
Reda, I., Dooraghi, M., and Habte, A. 2013.
"NREL Pyrheliometer Comparison: September 16 to 27, 2013 (NPC-2013)". United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/1111204. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1111204.
@article{osti_1111204,
title = {NREL Pyrheliometer Comparison: September 16 to 27, 2013 (NPC-2013)},
author = {Reda, I. and Dooraghi, M. and Habte, A.},
abstractNote = {Accurate measurements of direct normal (beam) solar irradiance from pyrheliometers are important for the development and deployment of solar energy conversion systems, improving our understanding of the Earth's energy budget for climate change studies, and for other science and technology applications involving solar flux. Providing these measurements places many demands on the quality system used by the operator of commercially available radiometers. Maintaining accurate radiometer calibrations traceable to an international standard is the first step in producing research-quality solar irradiance measurements. As with all measurement systems, absolute cavity radiometers and other types of pyrheliometers are subject to performance changes over time. NREL has developed and maintained a group of absolute cavity radiometers with direct calibration traceability to the World Radiometric Reference (WRR). These reference instruments are used by NREL to calibrate pyrheliometers and pyranometers using the ISO 17025 accredited Broadband Outdoor Radiometer Calibration (BORCAL) process (Reda et al. 2008). NPCs are held annually at the Solar Radiation Research Laboratory (SRRL) in Golden, Colorado. Open to all pyrheliometer owners/operators, e.g. NREL, NASA, NIST, NOAA, USA industry and academia, USA-DOE and other national laboratories, and national and international organizations. Each NPC provides an opportunity to determine the unique World Radiometric Reference (WRR) transfer factor (WRR-TF) for each participating pyrheliometer. By adjusting all subsequent pyrheliometer measurements by the appropriate WRR-TF, the solar irradiance data are traceable to the International System of Units through WRR.},
doi = {10.2172/1111204},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1111204},
journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Nov 01 00:00:00 EDT 2013},
month = {Fri Nov 01 00:00:00 EDT 2013}
}