National Renewable Energy Laboratory Pyrheliometer Comparisons: 24 September - 5 October 2012 (NPC-2012)

Research output: NRELTechnical Report

Abstract

The NREL Pyrheliometer Comparisons for 2012 (NPC-2012) were held at the Solar Radiation Research Laboratory in Golden, Colorado, from September 24 through October 5 for the purpose of transferring the World Radiometric Reference (WRR) to participating instrument. Twenty scientists and engineers operated 32 absolute cavity radiometers and 18 conventional thermopile-based pyrheliometers tosimultaneously measure clear-sky direct normal irradiance during the comparisons. The transfer standard group of reference radiometers for NPC-2012 consisted of four NREL radiometers with direct traceability to the WRR, having participated in the Eleventh International Pyrheliometer Comparisons (IPC-XI) hosted by the World Radiation Center in the fall of 2010. As the result of NPC-2012, eachparticipating absolute cavity radiometer was assigned a new WRR transfer factor, computed as the reference irradiance computed by the transfer standard group divided by the observed irradiance from the participating radiometer. The performance of the transfer standard group during NPC-2012 was consistent with previous comparisons, including IPC-XI. The measurement performance of the transferstandard group allowed the transfer of the WRR to each participating radiometer with an estimated uncertainty of +/- 0.33% with respect to the International System of Units.
Original languageAmerican English
Number of pages91
DOIs
StatePublished - 2013

NREL Publication Number

  • NREL/TP-5500-58430

Keywords

  • calibrations
  • pyrheliometer comparisons
  • pyrheliometers
  • radiometer calibration
  • solar irradiance
  • solar resources
  • transfer standard group
  • world radiometric reference

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