Maybe you have heard about the upcoming revision of the ISO 9060:1990? Soon the new ISO 9060 standard will be released, replacing the existing ISO standard issued in 1990 concerning the classification of instruments for measuring solar radiation. Significant changes and improvements are expected.  

At this stage, the details of the new ISO 9060 were disclosed within the Final Draft International Standard (FDIS). The draft has been distributed to all ISO committee for a final vote. Once the final draft has been approved, the second edition of ISO 9060 will be published before the end of the year.

Since EKO joined the ISO/TC180/SC1 committee, we have been fully aware of the upcoming revisions and have had an active contribution during the revision process. For EKO it is essential that the new standard will reflect up-to-date specifications based on the progress we made by implementing our latest sensor technologies such as the fast response and the spectrally flat of MS-80 and MS-57. In addition, it is important to make sure the new ISO 9060 becomes a hands-on document for best measurement practice and usability. 

Although we know about the details outlined in the new standard, due to the ISO confidentiality restrictions we cannot disclose detailed information about the standard yet. Nevertheless, all EKO sensors that comply with the ISO 9060:1990 will be fully compatible with the new standard in all aspects.

Thanks to the initiative and contribution of many people working in the solar energy and meteorological research industry, the new ISO9060:2018 will become a comprehensive document for solar radiation measurement practice. 

We look forward to the date of final approval and meanwhile will keep you informed.       

EKO product management
 

We took a different approach to measure the three irradiance components (DNI, GHI, DHI). A spectroradiometer with rotating Shadow Band (RSB) is an attractive alternative to a conventional 3 component sun tracker system. Just one spectroradiometer used for all measurements lowers the costs associated with the instrumentation required. Accurate DNI measurements can be obtained from a MS-711 Global spectroradiometer with RSB comparing with the MS-711 DNI spectroradiometer on a sun-tracker. The comparison between the outputs spectral DNI from the two configurations reveals a consistency in the method and the measuerements of all 3 irradiance components. EKO will provide the RSB solution for all spectroradiometer models.

Discover the new 2018 product guide including several new products. The pyranometer line up with MS-40 and MS-60 pyranometers with analog and digital interface. 

EKO’s new solar Monitoring System, the STR-21G-S0/ S1 and S2, are turnkey sensor systems for the most accurate solar radiation measurements of the direct solar radiation component. It can be easily integrated to any DAQ system, which has multiple analog or digital inputs.

Designed to withstand all weather conditions, the ASI-16 All Sky Imager features a digital camera and fish-eye optics with a 180° field of view assembled under a robust coated quartz dome, avoiding sensor degradation due to direct exposure to the sun and allowing the automated acquisition of high dynamic range (HDR) images of the hemispherical sky. 

The standard ASI-16 Sky Imager is capable of operating under harsh environments from temperatures as low as -40°C up to 50°C, with an integrated ventilation and heating system, which also prevent condensation on the dome surface and promote the fast removal of raindrops and snow. Furthermore, the imager is powered over ethernet (POE), with a durable and waterproof cable. The users can have full control of the imager to perform settings, data acquisition, visualization, and storage, with a web browser-based manager with live video stream and network storage.

The Sky imager is complemented with the Find Clouds software, in which the images acquired with can be processed to classify cloudiness. Using different algorithms to calculate cloudiness, the cloud analysis software, allows the calculation of the sun position in the image as well as to run algorithms such as the blue/red and blue/green channels ratio (BRBG), and the cloud detection and opacity classification (CDOC), to quantify cloudiness on the image set. 

Dowload here the full article

Download here the article published in PES S1 18

Recently, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) published the latest version (second edition) of the Best Practices Handbook for the Collection and Use of Solar Resource Data for Solar Energy Applications. In addition to describing the typical radiometers used to measure direct normal irradiance (DNI) and diffuse horizontal irradiance (DHI), there is a section on instruments that derive these values using different methods. EKO Instruments created the MS-05, a sensor based on the MS-093 Sunshine Duration Sensor. The MS-05 and the MS-093 has a rotating mirror that directs the incident solar irradiance onto a pyroelectric detector. In the case of the MS-05, the output is an analog signal and its maximum value correlates rather well to a DNI measurement made by a pyrheliometer. The data is presented in the handbook on page 3-27 and 3-28. Starting in 2018, EKO modified the MS-05 to improve performance and has released the MS-90. The MS-90 has a higher quality glass tube and a precision ground mirror. These improvements over the original design (MS-093) will further reduce measurement uncertainty and allow users the ability to make DNI measurements without the need of a sun tracker and pyrheliometer.

View NREL Best Practices Handbook

EKO delivered the second unit of MS-713 near-infrared (NIR) spectroradiometer to Meteorological Research Institute (MRI).

The Meteorological Research Institute (MRI) is a Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) facility that conducts research to clarify and support the prediction of meteorological, terrestrial, and hydrological phenomena and develop associated techniques, also contributes to the advancement of fundamental technology for meteorological services. 

MRI has been moving towards installing precise spectral irradiance observation instruments which can measure in the range from 300nm and 2550nm for researching the effects of aerosol and clouds on the earth radiation budget.

Recently, MRI installed EKO’s spectroradiometers MS-711, MS-712, MS-713.During the latter half of 2017, MRI installed a second unit of the EKO Instruments near-infrared (NIR) spectroradiometer, the MS-713 and STR-32G heavy-duty sun tracker. In this research, inspections of spectroradiometers properties and research of calibration method for spectroradiometers using Langley calibration method had been performed.

The MS-713 (3) is shown above on the EKO STR-32G heavy duty sun tracker (4). This image was taken from the NOAA Mauna Loa Observatory, located on the island of Hawaii. The MS-713 was calibrated using the Langley method. Other instruments that were calibrated at this time include the MS-711 (1) and MS-712 (2) spectroradiometers. Each instrument can be used with collimating tubes to measure the spectrum of direct normal irradiance. The MS-713 will help MRI research as it is a rare field deployable field instrument capable of measuring spectral irradiance from 900 nm to 2,550 nm. If combined with MS-711 and MS-712, spectral irradiance in the wide wavelength range can be measured with very high accuracy.

To the Meteorological Research Institute website