Jahresbericht 08 - PMOD/WRC

6 Operational Services
Operational Services
Quality Management System Calibrations
Silvio Koller
PMOD/WRC QMS
Since 2006 the PMOD/WRC maintains an approved quality
management system based on the general requirements
for the competence of testing and calibration
laboratories (EN ISO/IEC 17025).
To date, the WRC Solar Radiometry Section is covered by
the QMS and it calibrates customer instruments in accordance
to the EN/ISO standard.
Supervisory
Board
External
Services
WRC-SRS
WRC-IRS
WRC-WORCC
EUVC
Directorate
Internal
Services
Administration
Electronics
IT
Workshop
Laboratory
Quality
Manager
Research
Radiometry
Climatology
Figure 1. Organizational chart of the PMOD/WRC quality management
system. The WRC Solar Radiometry Section performs its calibrations
according to the EN ISO/IEC standard 17025.
PMOD/WRC is a designated institute of the Swiss National
Metrology Institute, METAS, which is a signatory of the
CIPM-MRA (Comité international des poids et mesures -
Mutual Recognition Arrangement).
Quality Management System Activities
Two calibration and measurement capabilities were
approved in 2008 and are listed in the database of the
„Bureau International des poids et mesures“ (BIPM):
Responsivity, direct and global solar irradiation.
Based on the approval the WRC Solar Radiometry Section
may now use the official logo on its issued certificates.
As in previous years, PMOD/WRC attended the international
inter-laboratory comparison at NREL in September
2008.
Instrument Sales
Silvio Koller
Silvio Koller
Solar Radiometry Section (WRC-SRS)
The number of instrument calibrations
significantly increased in 2008.
Compared to 2007 when 38 instruments
were calibrated, the number
increased to 88 instruments in 2008.
The WRC section „Solar Radiometry“ calibrated 75 pyranometers,
2 pyrheliometers and 11 actinometers during 78
days of measurement.
Infrared Radiometry Section (WRC-IRS)
The infrared radiometry section of the World Radiation Center
calibrated 24 pyrgeometers in 2008. Each instrument
was first characterized with a black-body source; the final
calibration was obtained by direct outdoor comparison of
downwelling longwave irradiance against the World Infrared
Standard Group (WISG) of pyrgeometers.
Atmospheric Turbidity Section (WRC-WORCC)
The World Optical depth Research and Calibration Center
calibrated 16 PFR instruments by comparison to the
WORCC standard Triad. Three of these PFR belong to the
GAW network, and 13 to international institutes. Five additional
PFR of the GAW network were calibrated by the Langley
method at their operational sites.
European Ultraviolet Calibration Center (EUVC)
The Ultraviolet Calibration Center of the PMOD/WRC calibrated
2 spectroradiometers at their respective field sites
using the traveling reference spectroradiometer QASUME.
Eight UVB and one UVA broadband radiometers and one
Bentham Se-Te Diode were calibrated. In July 2008, 7
Brewer spectrophotometers were calibrated relative to the
QASUME spectroradiometer during the 3rd RBCC-E campaign
at Arosa, Switzerland.
80
2004
70
2005
60
2006
50
2007
40 2008
30
20
10
0
Figure 2. Statistics of instrument calibrations at PMOD/WRC.
In 2008, five Precision Filter Radiometers (2 Japan, 1 Sweden, 1 WORCC, 1 EUSAAR) and two Absolute Radiometers
(1 Luxembourg, 1 Germany) were sold. In addition, 10 instruments of each type were manufactured in order to more
quickly respond to customer orders.