Patrick Disterhoft

Langley method of calibrating UV filter radiometers

The Langley method of calibrating UV multifilter shadow band radiometers (UV-MFRSR) is explored in this paper. This method has several advantages over the traditional standard lamp calibrations: the Sun is a free, universally available, and very constant source, and nearly continual automated field calibrations can be made. Although 20 or so Langley events are required for an accurate calibration, the radiometer remains in the field during calibration. Difficulties arise as a result of changing ozone optical depth during the Langley event and the breakdown of the Beer-Lambert law over the finite filter band pass since optical depth changes rapidly with wavelength. The Langley calibration of the radiometers depends critically upon the spectral characterization of each channel and on the wavelength and absolute calibration of the extraterrestrial spectrum used. Results of Langley calibrations for two UV-MFRSRs at Mauna Loa, Hawaii were compared to calibrations using two National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) traceable lamps. The objectives of this study were to compare Langley calibration factors with those from standard lamps and to compare field-of-view effects. The two radiometers were run simultaneously: one on a Sun tracker and the other in the conventional shadow-band configuration. Both radiometers were calibrated with two secondary 1000 W lamp, and later, the spectral response functions of the channels were measured. The ratio of Langley to lamp calibration factors for the seven channels from 300 nm to 368 nm using the shadow-band configuration ranged from 0.988 to 1.070. The estimated uncertainty in accuracy of the Langley calibrations ranged from ±3.8% at 300 nm to ±2.1% at 368 nm. For all channels calibrated with Central Ultraviolet Calibration Facility (CUCF) lamps the estimated uncertainty was ±2.5% for all channels.

Methodology for Deriving Clear-Sky Erythemal Calibration Factors for UV Broadband Radiometers of the U.S. Central UV Calibration Facility

Abstract In the United States, there are several federal agencies interested in the effects of UV radiation, which has resulted in the establishment of UV monitoring programs each with their own instrumentation and sites designed to address their specific needs. In 1993, participating agencies of the U.S. Global Change Research Program organized a UV Panel for coordinating the different agencies’ programs in order to ensure that UV data are intercalibrated, have common quality assurance and control procedures, and that the efforts among agencies are not duplicated. In order to achieve these goals, in 1994 the UV Panel recommended formation of the U.S. Central UV Calibration Facility (CUCF), which is operated by the Surface Radiation and Research Branch of the Air Resources Laboratory of National and Oceanic Atmospheric Administration. The CUCF is responsible for characterizing and calibrating UV measuring instruments from several U.S. federal agencies. Part of this effort is to calibrate UVB broadband rad...

The 1997 North American Interagency Intercomparison of Ultraviolet Spectroradiometers Including Narrowband Filter Radiometers

The fourth North American Intercomparison of Ultraviolet Monitoring Spectroradiometers was held September 15 to 25, 1997 at Table Mountain outside of Boulder, Colorado, USA. Concern over stratospheric ozone depletion has prompted several government agencies in North America to establish networks of spectroradiometers for monitoring solar ultraviolet irradiance at the surface of the Earth. The main purpose of the Intercomparison was to assess the ability of spectroradiometers to accurately measure solar ultraviolet irradiance, and to compare the results between instruments of different monitoring networks. This Intercomparison was coordinated by NIST and NOAA, and included participants from the ASRC, EPA, NIST, NSF, SERC, USDA, and YES. The UV measuring instruments included scanning spectroradiometers, spectrographs, narrow band multi-filter radiometers, and broadband radiometers. Instruments were characterized for wavelength accuracy, bandwidth, stray-light rejection, and spectral irradiance responsivity. The spectral irradiance responsivity was determined two to three times outdoors to assess temporal stability. Synchronized spectral scans of the solar irradiance were performed over several days. Using the spectral irradiance responsivities determined with the NIST traceable standard lamp, and a simple convolution technique with a Gaussian slit-scattering function to account for the different bandwidths of the instruments, the measured solar irradiance from the spectroradiometers excluding the filter radiometers at 16.5 h UTC had a relative standard deviation of ±4 % for wavelengths greater than 305 nm. The relative standard deviation for the solar irradiance at 16.5 h UTC including the filter radiometer was ±4 % for filter functions above 300 nm.

Determination of ultraviolet cosine-corrected irradiances and aerosol optical thickness by combined measurements with a Brewer spectrophotometer and a multifilter rotating shadowband radiometer

Combined measurements of diffuse-to-global radiation ratio and global spectral irradiances in the UV are used to derive cosine-corrected UV irradiances and aerosol optical depth (AOD). The diffuse-to-global radiation ratio is used first in the cosine correction of the global irradiance, then to calculate absolutely calibrated direct irradiances. The Beer-Lambert law is applied to derive the UV AOD using independent measurements of the extraterrestrial solar flux. The AOD can be derived with an uncertainty of about 0.03 at 60 degrees solar zenith angle. The method was applied to measurements obtained with two UV multifilter rotating shadowband radiometers (UV-MFRSRs) and a MK III Brewer spectrophotometer on the Island of Lampedusa in the Central Mediterranean during two periods of 2002 and 2004. The derived AOD at 318 and 332 nm was compared with UV AOD measured at 318, 320, and 368 nm with different techniques. The retrieved AOD, combining MFRSR and Brewer measurements, is in good agreement with the optical depth derived with the other methods.

United States Department of Agriculture reference ultraviolet spectroradiometer: current performance and operational experience at Table Mountain, Colorado

At present the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Reference Spectroradiometric Network consists of three sites: Table Mountain, Colorado, Lamont, Oklahoma (the ARM program SGP site), and Beltsville, Maryland. At each site we deploy and continuously operate a 1-m cascaded additive-double Czerny-Turner scanning monochromator with a bialkali photomultiplier and photon-counting detection. Lambertian fore-optic errors are less than 1% over the range of zenith angles from 0 to 80°. The instruments use photon counting and make measurements at 290 nm not affected by stray light under typical conditions. The basic performance specifications of the instrument were demonstrated by a prototype at the 1997 North-American UV Spectroradiometer Intercomparison. Data shown here demonstrate that these are met in routine operation. The fundamental instrument performance specifications are: Optical resolution: 0.1 nm FWHM, triangular slit-function. Wavelength reproducibility: ′0.0025-nm 2<T with 296-nm Hg retrace-scan corrections applied, ′0.007 nm 2σ over typical diurnal variability, without correction. Wavelength accuracy: Limited by calibration systematic errors. Believed to be 0.005-nm worst case. Stray light: < 10 - 7 at 4 FWHM, 10 - 1 0 at 20 nm, slit-scattering function versus 325 nm HeCd. Angular response: less than 1% error from cosine over the range of zenith angles from 0 to 80°. Signal linearity: The instrument uses a photomultiplier with 2-ns rise-time and photon counting detection. The dual-threshold discriminator has a 700-Mhz synchronous signal counting limit. The maximum counting rates seen at the longest wavelengths are less than 10 MHz; less than 1/5 of the frequency where nonlinearity can be detected, as tested for the 1997 Intercomparison. 2000 was the first full year of operation of our instrument at the NOAA Table Mountain site (140.177 °N 105.276 °W, 1900 m asl) for which the operational and calibration frequencies justify making the data accessible to outside users for scientific application. We show performance in routine operation and issues of calibration over the period April 2000 to 31 December 2001.

Calibration, data processing, and maintenance of the United States Department of Agriculture high-resolution ultraviolet spectroradiometers

The USDA ultraviolet radiation network currently includes four high-resolution spectroradiometers, located at Table Mountain, Colorado deployed November 1998; the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Climate Research Facility in Oklahoma October 1999; Beltsville, Mary- land November 1999; and Fort Collins, Colorado October 2002. These spectroradiometers contain Jobin Yvons 1-m Czerny-Turner double additive spectrometers. The instruments measure total horizontal radiation in the 290- to 371-nm range, once every 30 min, with a nominal FWHM of 0.1 nm. We describe data quality control techniques as well as the data processing required to convert the raw data into calibrated irra- diances. The radiometric calibration strategies using Central UV Calibra- tion Facility FEL lamps that are directly NIST-traceable, portable field calibrators, and vicarious calibrations using data from UV multifilter ro- tating shadowband radiometers MFRSRs are discussed. Using direct- to-diffuse ratios from UV MFRSRs, we derive direct and diffuse high- resolution horizontal spectra from the collocated UV spectroradiometers of the USDA network. The direct-beam spectra can be used in a Langley regression that leads to spectroradiometric in situ calibration and to ozone column and aerosol optical depth retrievals. The high-resolution direct spectra are used to obtain the ozone column and aerosol optical depth in the 290- to 360-nm range at 0.1-nm resolution. A statistical summary of network performance is presented.

Long-term stability of UV multifilter rotating shadowband radiometers: part 2. Lamp calibrations versus the Langley method

This is the second continuation of work begun by Dave Bigelow and James Slusser in their study of the same name published in 2000 in J. Geophys. Res., 105, 4833-4840, which studied only a few instruments over a limited in-service time span. Part 1 expanded the Langley stability analysis by using 42 instruments over 5 years of field service. This part 2 expands stability as expressed with repeated laboratory lamp calibrations of the instruments, and compares these to the prior Langley analysis. 115 cases representing 44 instruments covering seven years of deployment are studied. Complicating this analysis are the four versions of the UV-MFRSR instrument that span the analysis time frame, and the results are presented as such. These results show the mean annual drift in sensitivity for the seven nominal wavelengths of the UV-MFRSR instrument are: pre-Rev.M: 300nm -8.8%, 305nm -8.1%, 311nm -7.4%, 317nm -8.3%, 325nm -7.3%, 332nm -7.6%, 368nm -7.2%; Rev.M: 300nm -7.5%, 305nm -7.1%, 311nm -6.5%, 317nm -5.6%, 325nm -5.8%, 332nm -5.3%, 368nm -5.1%; Rev.N and P; 300nm -10.1%, 305nm -7.2%, 311nm -8.3%, 317nm -4.3%, 325nm -3.6%, 332nm -3.7%, 368nm -3.5%; and Rev.Q: 300nm -5.6%, 305nm -5.8%, 311nm -3.8%, 317nm -4.4%, 325nm -4.8%, 332nm -4.6%, 368nm -3.5%.

Validation of ozone and aerosol retrieval methods with UV Rotating Shadowband Spectroradiometer (RSS)

The data from the Rotating Shadownband Spetroradiometer UV-RSS deployed at Table Mountain, Boulder Colorado since June 2003 are used to retrieve ozone column and aerosol Angstrom coefficients in the 300 nm-380 nm range. The retrievals are performed from Langley regressions and from direct normal instantaneous irradiance measurements. The results from retrievals are used to verify assumption on ozone absorption cross-sections and ozone vertical profiles. A comparison between UV-RSS retrievals and those from the collocated instruments like the UV-MFRSR, Dobson, ozone sondes and TOMS-&-OMI is performed.

Out-of-band rejection studies of the UV multi-filter rotating shadow-band radiometers

The Central UV Calibration Facility (CUCF) annually calibrates and characterizes 47 Ultraviolet Multi-Filter Rotating Shadow-band Radiometers (UV-MFRSR) for the USDA UV Monitoring and Research Program (UVMRP). The UV-MFRSR instrument has seven 2-nm wide channels with nominal centroids at 300, 305, 311, 317, 325, 332, and 368 nm. The first two channels 300 and 305 nm use silicon-carbide (SiC) photodiodes, and in the original design the remaining five channels used gallium-phosphide (GaP) photodiodes. Because of the high rate of failure in the channels with GaP photodiodes, channels 3 through 7 were replaced with silicon (Si) photodiodes starting in June 2000 by the manufacturer Yankee Environmental Systems, Inc. The newer design radiometers were tested for out-of-band rejection with two sources, in the laboratory using a 1000W FEL quartz tungsten halogen lamp and in the field using the sun. Out-of-band light measurements were completed in the field on all 47 radiometers and show there is no appreciable signal from out-of-band light contributing to the total solar horizontal irradiance in each of the seven wavelength bands. However, in the calibration procedure, using a 1000W FEL quartz- tungsten-halogen lamp there is significant out-of-band signal contributing to the measured signal. The out-of-band signal is measured at the time of the calibration and corrections are applied to the calibration factors of the radiometer in each channel. At the Table Mountain Test Facility, solar irradiance from a calibrated filter radiometer with and without the out-of-band correction factors are compared to filter weighted solar irradiance from the U111 reference spectroradiometer.

Stability characteristics of 1000 watt FEL-type QTH lamps during the seasoning and screening process

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) employ the 1000 watt FEL-type quartz-tungsten-halogen (QTH) lamp as its transfer device for the spectral irradiance scale. The cost of the calibrated lamps from the NIST makes it prohibitive to use them for routine calibrations. To dilute the costs and extend the working lifetime of the lamps it is customary to transfer the NIST scale to secondary lamps and then using these to transfer to tertiary (working standards) lamps. NOAAs Central UV Calibration Facility (CUCF) currently owns six of the NIST primary standards of spectral irradiance. The CUCF transfers the spectral irradiance scale from the NIST primaries to secondary standards, which in this case are also used as working standards. Careful seasoning and screening of the secondary lamps is essential to achieve the maximum benefit out of this transfer and the operation of the expensive primary standards. The process of lamp seasoning and screening techniques used by the CUCF is described here. They include visual inspection of the lamp envelope, filament and lead wires during each step of the screening process. Also, the temporal stability of the lamp irradiance, lamp current and voltage and anomalous emission and absorption lines is discussed. Some of the problems that the CUCF has found with lamps are also shown.