Actinometric Platform for Solar Spectral and Air Quality Measurements

Panagiotis Ioannis Raptis1, Stelios Kazadzis1,2,Kouremeti Natalia2, Nikolaos Mihalopoulos1, Vassilis Amiridis3,
Evangelos Gerasopoulos1
1Institute for Environmental Research and Sustainable Development (IERSD), National Observatory of Athens (NOA), Metaxa & Vas Pavlou,
Penteli, 15236, Athens, Greece
2Physikalisch-Meteorologisches Observatorium Davos-World Radiation Center, Davos Dorf, Switzerland
3Institute for Astronomy, Astrophysics, Space Applications and Remote Sensing (IAASARS), National Observatory of Athens (NOA),Athens ,
Greece

NEW ACTINOMETRIC PLATFORM

National Observatory of Athens has an over half century long history of Actinometric measurements. A large variety of actinometers had been deployed over years to
record solar radiation components, at the Actinometric Station at Thissio, Greece. On January 2016 , in the framework of KRIPIS-THESPIA, a new platform has been
installed , consisting of two new high end spectral sun photometers: Precision Spectral Radiometer (PSR) and PANDORA. Combining these two instruments a very
wide spectral region can be studied in high detail, retieving products both for radiative transfer, aerosol and trace gases and energy applications. High quality and
relatively small uncertainties of the measurements will enhance our understanding in various atmospheric processes.

PSR
A new generation of solar spectrophotometers, the Precision Solar Spectroradiometer (PSR), is
being developed at PMOD/WRC to eventually replace current filter based sunphotometers. It is
based on a temperature stabilized grating spectroradiometer with a 1024 pixel Hamamatsu diode-
array detector, operated in a hermetically sealed nitrogen-flushed enclosure. The
spectroradiometer is designed to measure the solar spectrum in the 320 to 1040 nm wavelength
range with a spectral resolution of about 2 nm full width at half maximum. The optical bench with
the optical elements was optimized to reduce the temperature dependence of the solar
measurements to less than 1%K over the whole wavelength range. The design benefits from the
experience gained from successive generations of the successful Precision Filter Radiometer
(PFR), including: an in-built solarpointing sensor, an ambient pressure sensor and temperature
sensors to provide routine quality control information which allow autonomous operation at remote
sites with state-of-the-art data exchange via Ethernet interfaces. PSR#007 installed at National
Observatory of Athens, has 2 dierent heads, one dedicated to measuring Global Irradiance and
the other to DIrect Solar Irradiance. This instrument has been calibrated at PMOD/WRC on
October 2015 and absolute Irradiance values are available for all 1024 available channels. Spectral
Aerosol Optical Depth retrievals for the whole range are available, and algorithms for more
Fig. 1. Actinometric Station At Thisio, Greece. From left to right : PSR.
retrievals are under development. This includes both optical properties of aerosols and trace gases
PANDORA and CIMEL
and variables useful for energy applications and earths radiative budget. In order to qualify
instrument s measurements, we had installed it in two campaigns. CHARADMEXP took place at
Finokalia Greece, at 20/6-10/7/2014 combining in situ, ground based remote sensing and airbone PANDORA
UAV observations. PSR was installed and fully functional for 12 days. Also AERONETs cimel Pandora is a small spectrometer system based on commercial
sunphotometer (Holben et al, 1998) was collocated for the campaign and we compared AOD spectrometers having the stability and stray light
product at 7 wavelengths (340, 380, 440, 500, 675, 870 and 1020nm)to PSR recordings (Table 1). characteristics that make them suitable candidates for direct-
Also PSR#007 was installed at the fourth Filter Radiometer Comparison(FRC-IV), at Davos, sun measurements of total columns of ozone and other trace
Switzerland. Twenty-six filter radiometers and spectroradiometers from twelve countries have gases in the atmosphere. Sky observations are also made for
participated in this campaign. The instruments have been measuring direct solar spectral deriving trace gas altitude profiles (e.g., NO2 and O3). The
irradiance and then deriving AOD for the intercomparison assigned wavelength bands (Channels Pandora spectrometer system records irradiance over the range
3683nm, 4123nm, 5003nm, 8655nm). Measurements of AOD were compared with the 280 - 525 nm (0.6 nm resolution with 4.5x oversampling). A
reference triad of PFR instruments of the World aerosol Optical depth research and calibration fiber optic cable obtains light from the sun, moon, or sky from
center (WORCC) which is part of the World Radiation Center (WRC)(Wehrli, 2005) at figure 2. front-end optics with a 2.2 field of view (FOV) for direct-sun
observations using a diuser and 1.6 FOV for sky observations
without a diuser. When combined with the variable exposure
time (4 - 4000 ms), Pandora has a dynamic range of 107 to 1,
which is sucient for viewing both direct sun, sky and moon,
and for measuring the dark current in between each 20 second
Table 1. Statistics of PSR-CIMEL AOD
measurement. On a clear-sky day, Pandora averages about
comparison for the whole
CHARADMExp campaign period 4000 direct-sun measurements in 20 seconds. Currently Total
and Tropospheric Ozone and Nitrogen Dioxide Column
Wavelength(nm) intercept slope retrievals are available (Tzortziou, et al, 2012). Algorithms for
340 0.031 0.867 more retrievals are under development and including Spectral
380 0.031 0.890 Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) in the ultraviolet and the visible
440 0.033 0.905 range, columns of sulfur dioxide and formaldehyde. PANDORA
500 0.027 0.909 #112 is installed at National Observatory of Athens since
675 0.024 0.926
December 2015 and the retrievals will be available through the
870 0.024 0.920
PANDONIA network (expected at Autumn 2016).
1020 0.017 0.925

Fig. 2. Comparison of AOD retrievals at 865, 550, 412, 368nm among PSR#007 and the PFR
triad. Grey lines represent WMO directions for AOD measurements

Conclusions
PSR comparison with PFR prototype found dierences well within WMO limits for AOD measurements
PSR with a cimel sunphotometer and we found a good agreement , with a constant overestimation of PSR in the order of 0.02.
Accuracy of the instrument fulfills the highest standards available, making it beneficial for observations of the full spectral response of solar Irradiance to dierent
atmospheric conditions.

References Acknowledgment
Holben, B. N., Eck, T. F., Slutsker, I., Tanre, D., Buis, J. P., Setzer, A., ... & Lavenu, F. (1998). AERONETA federated instrument network and data archive for aerosol
P.Rap&s would like to acknowledge the project
characterization. Remote sensing of environment, 66(1), 1-16..
IPCC: Climate Change 2007 The Physical Science Basis: Contribution of the Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Reportof the IPCC, Cambridge University Press, Aristotelis- SOLAR (50561), Investga&on on the factors
New York, NY, USA,2007 aec&ng the solar radia&on eld in Greece
Tzortziou, M., Herman, J. R., Cede, A., & Abuhassan, N. (2012). High precision, absolute total column ozone measurements from the Pandora spectrometer system:
Comparisons with data from a Brewer double monochromator and Aura OMI. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 117(D16). for more info:
Wehrli, Christoph. "GAWPFR: A network of aerosol optical depth observations with precision filter radiometers." GLOBAL ATMOSPHERE WATCH (2005): 36.
piraptis@noa.gr

WMO: WMO/GAW Experts workshop on a global surface-basednetwork for long term observations of column aerosol optical properties, Davos 2004, edited by:
http://apcg.space.noa.gr