An evaluation of the performance of the proposed instrumentation for the U.S. solar and aerosol optical depth network

At last year's AMS energy conference a proposal was presented to establish a long-term, 107-station network of radiometers for measuring solar radiation at the Climate Reference Network sites within CONUS. A new commercial instrument, called the Thermopile Shadowband Radiometer, has the potential to measure integrated solar-spectrum irradiance components including direct normal, diffuse horizontal, and global horizontal irradiance. There are six other narrowband (10 nm) channels, sampled simultaneously with the broadband channel that can be used to measure aerosol optical depth and, also, prospect for spectral irradiance useful for photovoltaic devices. An evaluation of the instrument's performance will be presented; namely, it will be compared to first-class thermopile radiometers making diffuse and global horizontal and direct normal irradiance measurements and to a traditional pointing sun radiometer for comparing aerosol optical depths.