| FAQ Legend: |  All Products
 Product Class (Broadband Pyranometers)
 This Product (TSP-400) |
3. Operational
No. The spectral distribution of a lamp is very different than the spectral distribution of the sun, especially in the UV portion of the spectrum. The sun is essential in calibrating the absolute response of broadband instruments as a source of stable spectral irradiance. You should first know that three different responses of broadband instruments are measured during calibration: the cosine response, spectral response, and the absolute response. This questions refers only to the absolute response. For more in-depth information on calibrating the other responses, and on calibration in general, please click on Services, and then Optical Calibration. UVB pyranometers are calibrated against both the sun and against specially calibrated UVB pyranometers known as transfer detectors. These instruments have been carefully calibrated against co-located narrowband spectroradiometers, which in turn are calibrated with NIST-traceable quartz halogen tungsten filament lamps in our Optical Calibration Facility. The transfer detectors can be used to calibrate instruments off-site, hence their name. Broadband visible Total Solar Pyranometers are calibrated against the sun and other co-located pyranometers which are ultimately traceable back to WMO standards located at the World Radiation Center in Davos, Switzerland.
|
