A novel instrument for cost-effective and reliable measurement of Solar Spectral Irradiance

A next generation solar spectral irradiance meter (SSIM) was installed at the University of Ottawa solar test site in September 2014, for ongoing collection of environmental and spectral data. The instrument's performance is compared against a commercial pyrheliometer and a spectroradiometer during an eight month study where ambient temperature fluctuates from -30°C to 30°C. The cumulative solar energy measured by the SSIM over the duration of the experiment agreed to within 0.5% as compared to the Eppley pyrheliometer. A good spectral agreement between the SSIM and the ASD FieldSpec 3 spectroradiometer is observed, with the integral of the spectral irradiance agreeing to within 1% for both instruments. No degradation is observed at any point during this investigation.