Instrument

The CE318 (CIMEL Electronique, France) is an automatic Sun-scanning photometer that measures direct and diffuse solar irradiance and sky radiance at the Earth’s surface at nine wavelengths (340, 380, 440, 500, 675, 870, 936, 1020, and 1640 nm). This photometer takes measurements only during daylight hours and is equipped with a wet sensor to detect the precipitation to stop the work and protect the detectors from moisture. An automatic system of tracking the sun is responsible for pointing in its direction, which requires the possibility of setting the instrument at any horizontal and vertical angle.  Collected data is automatically uploaded and processed by the AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET). Finished products are available at the AERONET website at three different quality levels. The widely used parameter is spectrally dependent column integrated aerosol optical depth (AOD) with uncertainty at the level of ±0.01 at all given channels (except for the 936 nm channel used to estimate the total water vapour content).

Instrument PIs: Iwona Stachlewska UW / Anca Nemuc INOE