Buying Equipment for Monitoring Solar Irradiance

David Brooks

Elsewhere on this Web site, you will find information about building your own solar cell-based pyranometers. Even if you do this, you will eventually want a commercial pyranometer for calibration, and you will almost certainly want to record your data. Here are some sources that I use

• Solar cell-based pyranometers:
  LI-COR, http://www.licor.com/env/Products/Sensors/200/li200_description.jsp
  Apogee Instruments, http://www.apogee-inst.com/pyr_spec.htm
  Kipp & Zonen SP-Lite, http://www.kippzonen.com/?product/991/SP+Lite2.aspx
  
• 12-bit data loggers (8-bit resolution is insufficient for these measurements)
  Onset Computer Corporation, http://www.onsetcomp.com/Products/Product_Pages/hobo_u12_loggers/U12_family_data_loggers.html