Ibrahim Reda

Measurement of Broadband Diffuse Solar Irradiance Using Current Commercial Instrumentation with a Correction for Thermal Offset Errors

Abstract Diffuse-sky solar irradiance is an important quantity for radiation budget research, particularly as it relates to climate. Diffuse irradiance is one component of the total downwelling solar irradiance and contains information on the amount of downward-scattered, as opposed to directly transmitted, solar radiation. Additionally, the diffuse component is often required when calibrating total irradiance radiometers. A variety of pyranometers are commonly used to measure solar diffuse irradiance. An examination of some instruments for measuring diffuse irradiance using solar tracking shade disks is presented, along with an evaluation of the achieved accuracy. A data correction procedure that is intended to account for the offset caused by thermal IR exchange between the detector and filter domes in certain common diffuse pyranometers is developed and validated. The correction factor is derived from outputs of a collocated pyrgeometer that measures atmospheric infrared irradiance.

Atmospheric longwave irradiance uncertainty: Pyrgeometers compared to an absolute sky‐scanning radiometer, atmospheric emitted radiance interferometer, and radiative transfer model calculations

Because atmospheric longwave radiation is one of the most fundamental elements of an expected climate change, there has been a strong interest in improving measurements and model calculations in recent years. Important questions are how reliable and consistent are atmospheric longwave radiation measurements and calculations and what are the uncertainties? The First International Pyrgeometer and Absolute Sky-scanning Radiometer Comparison, which was held at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement programs Southern Great Plains site in Oklahoma, answers these questions at least for midlatitude summer conditions and reflects the state of the art for atmospheric longwave radiation measurements and calculations. The 15 participating pyrgeometers were all calibration-traced standard instruments chosen from a broad international community. Two new chopped pyrgeometers also took part in the comparison. An absolute sky-scanning radiometer (ASR), which includes a pyroelectric detector and a reference blackbody source, was used for the first time as a reference standard instrument to field calibrate pyrgeometers during clear-sky nighttime measurements. Owner-provided and uniformly determined blackbody calibration factors were compared. Remarkable improvements and higher pyrgeometer precision were achieved with field calibration factors. Results of nighttime and daytime pyrgeometer precision and absolute uncertainty are presented for eight consecutive days of measurements, during which period downward longwave irradiance varied between 260 and 420 W m−2. Comparisons between pyrgeometers and the absolute ASR, the atmospheric emitted radiance interferometer, and radiative transfer models LBLRTM and MODTRAN show a surprisingly good agreement of <2 W m−2 for nighttime atmospheric longwave irradiance measurements and calculations.

Recent Progress in Reducing the Uncertainty in and Improving Pyranometer Calibrations

The Measurements and Instrumentation Team within the Distributed Energy Resources Center at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, NREL, calibrates pyranometers for outdoor testing solar energy conversion systems. The team also supports climate change research programs. These activities led NREL to improve pyranometer calibrations. Low thermal-offset radiometers measuring the sky diffuse component of the reference solar irradiance removes bias errors on the order of 20 Watts per square meter (W/m 2 ) in the calibration reference irradiance. Zenith angle dependent corrections to responsivities of pyranometers removes 15 to 30 W/m 2 bias errors from field measurements. Detailed uncertainty analysis of our outdoor calibration process shows a 20% reduction in the uncertainty in the responsivity of pyranometers. These improvements affect photovoltaic module and array performance characterization, assessment of solar resources for design, sizing, and deployment of solar renewable energy systems, and ground-based validation of satellite-derived solar radiation fluxes.

An Extensive Comparison of Commercial Pyrheliometers under a Wide Range of Routine Observing Conditions

In the most comprehensive pyrheliometer comparison known to date, 33 instruments were deployed to measure direct normal solar radiation over a 10-month period in Golden, Colorado. The goal was to determine their performance relative to four electrical-substitution cavity radiometers that were calibrated against the World Radiometric Reference (WRR) that is maintained at the World Radiation Center in Davos, Switzerland. Because of intermittentcabling problems with one of the cavity radiometers, the average of three windowed, electrical-substitution cavity radiometers served as the reference irradiance for 29 test instruments during the 10-month study. To keep the size of this work manageable, comparisons are limited to stable sunny conditions, passing clouds, calm and windy conditions, and hot and cold temperatures. Other variables could have been analyzed, or the conditions analyzed could have employed higher resolution. A more complete study should be possible now that the instruments are identified; note that this analysis was performed without any knowledge on the part of the analyst of the instruments’ manufacturers or models. Apart from the windowed cavities that provided the best measurements, two categories of performance emerged during the comparison. All instruments exceeded expectations in that they measured with lower uncertainties than the manufacturers’ own specifications. Operational 95% uncertainties for the three classes of instruments, which include the uncertainties of the open cavities used for calibration, were about 0.5%, 0.8%,and 1.4%.The open cavitiesthat wereused for calibrationof allpyrheliometers havean estimated 95% uncertainty of 0.4%‐0.45%, which includes the conservative estimate of 0.3% uncertainty for the WRR.

Using a Blackbody to Calculate Net Longwave Responsivity of Shortwave Solar Pyranometers to Correct for Their Thermal Offset Error during Outdoor Calibration Using the Component Sum Method

Abstract Thermopile pyranometers’ thermal offset has been recognized since the pyranometer’s inception. This offset is often overlooked or ignored because its magnitude is small compared to the overall solar signal at higher irradiance. With the demand of smaller uncertainty in measuring solar radiation, recent publications have described a renewed interest in this offset, its magnitude, and its effect on solar measurement networks for atmospheric science and solar energy applications. Recently, it was suggested that the magnitude of the pyranometer thermal offset is the same if the pyranometer is shaded or unshaded. Therefore, calibrating a pyranometer using a method known as the shade/unshade method would result in accurate responsivity calculations because the thermal offset error is canceled. When using the component sum method for the pyranometer calibration, the thermal offset error, which is typically negative when the sky is cloudless, does not cancel, resulting in an underestimated shortwave resp...

Pyrgeometer calibration at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)

Abstract Pyrgeometers are used to measure longwave terrestrial radiation. Regular pyrgeometer calibration against an internationally recognized standard is required in order to measure the longwave radiation consistently at different sites around the globe. At present, there is no internationally recognized standard to calibrate pyrgeometers. A well-characterized blackbody is, however, an accepted approach. This paper describes a method of establishing a precise blackbody reference and using it to calibrate a group of four transfer reference pyrgeometers. The group is then deployed outdoors to evaluate the precision of the blackbody calibration. The results from the outdoor data shows that the percentage mean-square-error of each transfer reference pyrgeometer is 0.12%, 0.07%, 0.46%, and 0.10% with a resultant percentage root-mean-square of 0.43%. The errors are calculated with respect to the average of the irradiance readings of the transfer reference pyrgeometers. To minimize the number of transfer reference pyrgeometers and to allow more space for calibrating test pyrgeometers, a sub-set of the transfer reference pyrgeometers is then used to calibrate a test pyrgeometer outdoors. The calibration of the test pyrgeometer resulted in reducing its error from +4.00% to ±0.32% with respect to the irradiance measured by the sub-set of the transfer reference pyrgeometers. The outdoor calibration method can minimize the calibration cost resulting from using the lengthy and costly blackbody calibration because many pyrgeometers can be calibrated at the same time. Appendix A shows a diagram that describes the papers concept.

Uncertainty Estimate for the Outdoor Calibration of Solar Pyranometers: A Metrologist Perspective

Abstract: Pyranometers are used outdoors to measure solar irradiance. By design, this of radiometer can measure the total hemispheric (global) or diffuse (sky) irradiance when the detector is unshaded or shaded from the sun disk, respectively. These measurements are used in a variety of applications including solar energy conversion, atmospheric studies, agriculture, and materials science. Proper calibration of pyranometers is essential to ensure measurement quality. This paper describes a step-by-step method for calculating and reporting the uncertainty of the calibration, using the guidelines of the ISO “Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement” or GUM, that is applied to the pyranometer calibration procedures used at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). The NREL technique characterizes a responsivity function of a pyranometer as a function of the zenith angle, as well as reporting a single calibration responsivity value for a zenith angle of 45°. The uncertainty analysis shows that a lower uncertainty can be achieved by using the response function of a pyranometer determined as a function of zenith angle, in lieu of just using the average value at 45°. By presenting the contribution of each uncertainty source to the total uncertainty; users will be able to troubleshoot and improve their calibration process. The uncertainty analysis method can also be used to determine the uncertainty of different calibration techniques and applications, such as deriving the uncertainty of field measurements.

Improving the Accuracy of Using Pyranometers to Measure the Clear Sky Global Solar Irradiance

Pyranometer users have customarily applied one responsivity value when calculating the global solar irradiance. Usually, the responsivity value is reported by either the manufacturer or a calibration facility. Many pyranometer calibrations, made both at NREL and elsewhere, have shown that the responsivity of a pyranometer changes with the change in solar zenith and azimuth angles. Depending on how well the pyranometer sensor is radiometrically leveled, these changes can exceed +/-5% of the reported responsivity, which means that errors in the calculated global solar irradiance can exceed +/-5% from the nominal values. This paper describes a method to decrease the errors resulting from the change of the solar zenith angle under clear sky conditions. Two responsivity functions, morning and afternoon, were used instead of one responsivity value. The two functions have been chosen because of asymmetry of the morning and afternoon cosine responses demonstrated by some pyranometers.

Current issues in terrestrial solar radiation instrumentation for energy, climate, and space applications

Reductions of uncertainty in terrestrial solar radiation measurements are needed to validate the Earths radiation balance derived from satellite data. Characterization of solar energy resources for renewable technologies requires greater time and spatial resolution for economical technology deployment. Solar radiation measurement research at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory addresses calibrations, operational characteristics, and corrections for terrestrial solar radiation measurements. We describe progress in measurements of broadband diffuse-sky radiation, and characterization of field instrument thermal offsets and spectral irradiance. The need and prospects for absolute references for diffuse and long-wave terrestrial solar radiation measurements are discussed. Reductions in uncertainty of broadband irradiance measurements from tens of watts per square meter to a few (one to two) watts per square meter are reported, which reduce time and labor to quantify and identify trends in artificial optical radiation sources, terrestrial solar radiation, and the Earths radiation budget.

A new absolute reference for atmospheric longwave irradiance measurements with traceability to SI units

Two independently designed and calibrated absolute radiometers measuring downwelling longwave irradiance were compared during two field campaigns in February and October 2013 at Physikalisch Meteorologisches Observatorium Davos/World Radiation Center (PMOD/WRC). One absolute cavity pyrgeometer (ACP) developed by NREL and up to four Integrating Sphere Infrared Radiometers (IRIS) developed by PMOD/WRC took part in these intercomparisons. The internal consistency of the IRIS radiometers and the agreement with the ACP were within ±1 W m−2, providing traceability of atmospheric longwave irradiance to the international system of units with unprecedented accuracy. Measurements performed during the two field campaigns and over the past 4 years have shown that the World Infrared Standard Group (WISG) of pyrgeometers is underestimating clear-sky atmospheric longwave irradiance by 2 to 6 W m−2, depending on the amount of integrated water vapor (IWV). This behavior is an instrument-dependent feature and requires an individual sensitivity calibration of each pyrgeometer with respect to an absolute reference such as IRIS or ACP. For IWV larger than 10 mm, an average sensitivity correction of +6.5% should be applied to the WISG in order to be consistent with the longwave reference represented by the ACP and IRIS radiometers. A concerted effort at international level will need to be implemented in order to correct measurements of atmospheric downwelling longwave irradiance traceable to the WISG.