National Conference of Standards Laboratories, International (NCSLI) Workshop & Symposium

NREL is a national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, operated by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC.

Introducing an Absolute Cavity Pyrgeometer for Improving the Atmospheric Longwave

Irradiance Measurement

National Conference of Standards Laboratories, International (NCSLI)

Workshop & Symposium

July 29 to August 2, 2012

by

Ibrahim Reda*, Leonard Hansen**, and Jinan Zeng**

*NREL, **NIST

2

Abstract

The Absolute Cavity Pyrgeometer (ACP), U.S. Patent application No. 13/049,275 is being developed to measure the absolute outdoor longwave irradiance with traceability to the Système international d'unités (SI). ACP consists of domeless thermopile, gold-plated dual compound parabolic concentrator (CPC), temperature controller. The incoming irradiance is reflected from the specular gold surface of the CPC and concentrated on the thermopile’s blackened surface. The CPC’s interior surface design result in an ACP throughput value, characterized by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The responsivity of the thermopile is determined by lowering the temperature of reference junctions of the thermopile, then calculating the rate of change of the thermopile output voltage versus the changing net irradiance. The absolute atmospheric longwave irradiance is then calculated with an uncertainty of ±3.96 W/m2 with traceability to SI. The measured irradiance was compared with the irradiance measured by two pyrgeometers calibrated by the World Radiation Center with traceability to the Interim World Infrared Standard Group, WISG. A total of 408 readings were collected over three different nights. The calculated irradiance measured by the ACP was 1.5 W/m2 lower than that measured by the two pyrgeometers that are traceable to WISG. The WISG is claimed to be traceable to SI to within ±4 W/m2. Therefore, further development /characterization of the ACP might contribute to the effort of establishing an improved absolute world reference with traceability to SI.

Temperature controller

3-Thermistors@120°on perimeter

Thermal Mass

Wr

Watm

Insulator


Wc- Wr

ξ.Wc

ξ.Wr

Gold plated compound parabolic concentrator

Receiving junctions ofthermopile (Black)

Wnet = K1*Vtp

Reference Junctions’Thermistor, Tcase

Thermopile

Reference: Reda, I.; Zeng, J.; Schulch, J.; Hanssen, L.; Wilthen, B.; Myers, D.; Stoffel, T. Dec. 2011. “An absolute cavity pyrgeometer to measure the absolute outdoor longwave irradiance with traceability to International System of Units, SI”. Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics, 77 (2012) 132-143. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jastp.2011.12.011

3

Overview

- Purpose- Interim World Infrared Standard Group (WISG)

& calibration traceability- Measurement Equation- Outdoor measurement and uncertainty

estimate- Comparison to WISG- Application and why unique?- Conclusion and future work.

4

Purpose

- Measure outdoor absolute longwave irradiance- Absolute measurement traceable to International

System of Units, SI- To date: Interim world reference traceable to

blackbody (not sky/atmosphere) = World Infrared Standard Group, WISG. Traceable to blackbody irradiance, not SI

- ACP is a contribution to develop the world reference with traceability to SI, using the outdoor irradiance as the source, instead of blackbody.

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WISG at the Physikalisch-Meteorologisches Observatorium Davos (PMOD)

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Traceability of Pyrgeometer Calibration

WISG: Established usingan absolute scanner witha blackbody

Transfer pyrgeometers

Field pyrgeometers toMeasure atmosphericLongwave irradiance

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Measurement Equation

- ACP Net irradiance:

- By cooling the ACP case temperature, and since Watm is stable, then,

- Then the atmospheric longwave irradiance is,

Where,K1, Vtp, ϵ , K2, Wr , Wc and τ are the reciprocal of ACP’s responsivity, thermopile voltage, gold emittance, detector’semittance, receiver irradiance, CPC irradiance, and throughput (NIST characterization), consecutively.

K V W W K Wtp a tm c r1 21 2* * ( ) * ( ) * *

WK V K W W

a tmtp r c

1 22 1* ( ) * * ( ) *

KW K W

Vc r

tp1

21 2

( ) * ( ) * * Temperature controller


Thermal Mass

Wr

Watm

Insulator


Wc- Wr

ξ.Wc

ξ.Wr



Wnet = K1*Vtp


Thermopile

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Outdoor Set-Up at NREL-SRRL

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Temperature controller


Thermal Mass

Wr

Watm

Insulator


Wc- Wr

ξ.Wc

ξ.Wr



Wnet = K1*Vtp


Thermopile

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Atmospheric Longwave Irradiance

260

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3:18

:12

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Atm

osph

eric

Lon

gwav

e Irr

adia

nce

(W/m

2 )

Mountain Standard Time

September 15, 2010 September 16, 2010 September 17, 2010

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Variable Net Irradiance vs Thermopile Output

y1 (September 15, 2010)= 0.0784x - 295.5R² = 0.9959

-390

-380

-370

-360

-350

-340

-330

-320

-310

-300

-290

-1100 -900 -700 -500 -300 -100

Wne

t " (W

/m

2 )

Vtp (uV)

y2 (September 15, 2010) = 0.0823x - 294.23R² = 0.9986

-390

-380

-370

-360

-350

-340

-330

-320

-310

-300

-290-1100 -900 -700 -500 -300 -100

Wne

t " (W

/m

2 )

Vtp (uV)

y1 (September 16, 2010) = 0.0797x - 289.49R² = 0.9996

-390

-380

-370

-360

-350

-340

-330

-320

-310

-300

-290

-1100 -900 -700 -500 -300 -100

Wne

t " (W

/m

2 )

Vtp (uV)

y 2 (September 16, 2010)= 0.0819x - 284.8R² = 0.9993

-390

-380

-370

-360

-350

-340

-330

-320

-310

-300

-290

-1100 -900 -700 -500 -300 -100

Wne

t " (W

/m

2 )

Vtp (uV)

y (September 17, 2010) = 0.0819x - 296.54R² = 0.9897

-390

-380

-370

-360

-350

-340

-330

-320

-310

-300

-290

-1100 -900 -700 -500 -300 -100

Wne

t " (W

/m

2 )

Vtp (uV)

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Uncertainty Estimate

WK V K W W

a tmtp r c

1 22 1* ( ) * * ( ) *

Variable

Value

Standard Uncertainty

(u)

Sensitivity Coefficient

(c) c*u Percentage

Contribution

K1 0.0822 0.00044 -818.24 -0.366 9.4

Vtp -825 -2.38 0.083 -0.198 5.1

εg 0.0225 0.00004 -783.23 -0.031 0.8

εcav 1 .0006 -394.53 -0.228 5.9

Wr 385.5 0.1835 1.994 0.366 9.4

Wc 391.3 0.1061 1.031 0.109 2.8

τ 0.99169 0.00418 -299.32 -1.250 32.2

K2 1 0.00173 768.65 1.331 34.3

Type-B Combined standard uncertainty = uB 1.93 (W.m-2)

Type-A standard uncertainty from line fit = uAf 0.15 (W.m-2)

Type-A standard uncertainty from non-equivalence = uAne 0.60 (W.m-2)

Combined standard uncertainty of Watm = uatm 2.02 (W.m-2)

Effective degrees of freedom 290239407

Student’s “t” = k 1.96

Expanded Uncertainty = k*uatm = U95, atm 3.96 (W.m-2)

Percentage Expanded Uncertainty = U95, atm 1.3%

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Measured Irradiance difference

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Applications

ACP is a reference instrument traceable SI, and might beused to calibrate instruments for the following applications:

1. Renewable-Energy: Thermal systems, window efficiency, resource assessment/maps, PV efficiency, solar and wind energy

2. Atmospheric science: Cloud cover, meteorology, earth energy budget/profile, climate study

3. Agriculture4. Military5. IR thermometry

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Why Unique?

- Uses the irradiance (intended to be measured) as the source to avoid spectral mismatch

- Independent from the irradiance value and spectral distribution

- Traceable to SI- All other systems are traceable to blackbody

irradiance, i.e. blackbody/indoor/outdoor spectral mismatch.

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Conclusion and Future Work

- ACP is New, unique, and traceable to SI rather than a blackbody

- ACP might contribute to establishing an Internationally recognized reference for measuring the atmospheric longwave irradiance

- Future ACP comparison with PMOD’s absolute reference (under development) and other absolute references if available.

Documents

National Conference of Standards Laboratories, International (NCSLI) Workshop & Symposium