Calibration of Solar Pyranometers in Australia

Our new Melbourne based pyranometer calibration facility provides:

• Local calibrations performed to the highest IEC standards
• Calibrations are certified by Kipp & Zonen – ensuring you maintain your instrument’s warranty
• Instruments are returned fully calibrated with no need to introduce offsets into your data logger 
• Rapid turn around time of less than a week saves you time and money 
• Local Australian delivery eliminates the need for expensive international freight

Calibrated in Melbourne, VIC

Calibration of solar pyranometers to the ISO 9847 Standard for customers based in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands will be available in our Melbourne calibration facility starting in Q3 2021. This will serve to decrease the expense and downtime that comes with shipping sensors to foreign calibration facilities. The increased efficiency, decreased cost, and a higher level of service the facility brings will make our calibration facility an indispensable resource to Australian and New Zealand customers.

To facilitate a rapid turn around time, we are offering calibration service contracts that involve an annual calibration contract for all of your solar radiation pyranometers. You nominate when pyranometers are sent to us and how many. We will then book a specific day for your calibration to occur. Our automated alerting system can email you a reminder email one or two months before the calibration is due. Providing your pyranometers reach us at the nominated time, then we can guarantee a rapid turn around time. We, of course, offer one-off non-contract calibrations as well but turn around time may be longer.

Contact us today to find out more and start booking your calibrations.

Solar Pyranometer calibrations will be available any time of the year as we have implemented the same solar pyranometer calibration method as our OpCo Kipp & Zonen. This method meets the ISO 9847 standard. Kipp & Zonen are the world's leading manufacturer of solar radiation monitoring instrumentation and pyranometers.

This method is performed by comparing a "working standard" instrument of the same generic type with the solar pyranometer under test. Calibration is done under a lamp that simulates the solar spectrum. An innovative technology solution enables physical calibration to be performed in Melbourne, but the data generated is automatically sent to Kipp & Zonen and then analysed remotely by calibration experts at Kipp & Zonen. They then issue a certified calibration certificate. This is all achieved within 5 days, enabling an extremely rapid calibration turnaround to be achieved, minimising the amount of time you are without your solar pyranometer and thus minimising costly data loss on site.

The 'working standard' pyranometer has been calibrated outdoors against the World Radiometric Reference (WRR) at the World Radiation Centre (WRC) in Davos, Switzerland and issued with a calibration certificate. This specifies the sensitivity under the conditions at the calibration time (typically temperature and solar zenith angle/air mass). This sensitivity should be corrected for the conditions in the specific test laboratory.

The laboratory test method is closely defined in WMO 9847 to minimise errors. No calibration lamp simulates the solar spectrum well enough for absolute indoor calibration. The comparison method is designed so that a 'traceable' calibration lamp is not needed and is not beneficial. In the past, the lamp was usually Tungsten Halogen, but Kipp & Zonen now uses a Metal Halide lamp that has better stability and less infrared heat output. This same lamp is utilised in our Melbourne facility. The specific lamp is not critical because it is a comparison test with a working standard pyranometer calibrated at WRC under clear skies with low aerosol content (almost no pollution).

How often should I calibrate my solar pyranometer?

Kipp & Zonen recommends that their solar radiation instruments operating in the field are calibrated at regular intervals. While the Kipp & Zonen pyranometers' quality is sufficiently high to allow a calibration once every two years, many customers prefer an annual calibration. Overtime in the field, the sensitivity of an instrument is slightly altered due to prolonged exposure to the sun, and that can cause some deviation in the sensor's measurement properties.

Pyranometer calibration to an international standard addresses this issue and ensures the data is reliable and incomparable, guaranteeing its quality for both the Australian and New Zealand solar industry and international scientific research on solar radiation.

Download Kipp & Zonen Pyranometer Calibrations

What Calibration Standards apply to solar radiation monitoring instrumentation?

The only accepted world standards for the calibration of radiometers for the measurement of global or direct broadband solar radiation are as below:

ISO 9846

Calibration of a Pyranometer Using a Pyrheliometer as a reference.

ISO 9847

Allows for calibration of a pyranometer indoors (as at the factory in Melbourne) against a reference pyranometer of a similar type or outdoors. Outdoors a field pyranometer can be calibrated over several days against a 'reference' pyranometer of similar or (ideally) higher quality with a reliable, recent, and traceable calibration. We plan to start offering field calibrations in 2022.

ISO 9059

Calibration of Field Pyrheliometers by Comparison to a Reference Pyrheliometer. This can be against a 'reference' instrument of a similar type or (ideally) an Absolute Cavity Pyrheliometer. This is the PMO 6 from WRC-Davos or the HF/AHF from Eppley.

ISO 9060

Specification and Classification of Instruments for Measuring Hemispherical Solar and Direct Solar Radiation. These are the standards recommended by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and are used by every manufacturer of quality solar radiation sensors. Many major meteorological organisations also use them to make their re-calibrations. For Pyranometers, the applicable standard is. ISO 9847 (ASTM E824) 'Solar Energy - Calibration of Field Pyranometers by Comparison to a Reference Pyranometer'.