Sunshine Recorder

yv1hx · **Posted:** Thu Sep 22, 2011 12:42 am

A great success!! :clap:

Holger · **Posted:** Sat Sep 24, 2011 10:56 pm

Brilliant result - well done Alan & Ole!!! :clap:

Has anyone from MO commented on the trial yet?
I am as pleased as punch with my recorder and can only recommend it!
Holger

PaulMy · **Posted:** Sun Sep 25, 2011 2:44 am

Very impressive comparison. Alan and Ole, you've done a wonderful job with your ideas and must feel very satisfied to have those results from an official source. I am very happy with the data I am seeing from my B-L installation, and so surprised with the number of days and hours of sunshine we have had this summer.
Paul

apenwith · **Posted:** Sun Sep 25, 2011 9:41 am

Hi all

Looking at the graphs posted earlier there are some differences at an hourly level between the MO data and ours.

These could, in part, be explained by the methods used by each device for calculating the sun ON situation. The B-L recorder checks for sunshine every second whereas the MO system uses a method that checks the average radiation of 30 readings at 2 second intervals. This means that if the sun is shown to be just above the threshold for a period followed by low radiation readings the average could decide that the sun was OFF for that minute whereas the B-L recorder would have logged the ON period. Similarly a period of high radiation could tip the MO average to an ON minute although the sun may have been visible for a short time only.

Obviously this effect would be more pronounced with fast moving fairly small clouds so we would expect any difference to be greater on days with rather less sunshine recorded.

It could be said that we are producing figures which are more accurate than the official data - as we have said before - we are comparable to the man in his deck chair with a stopwatch who just knows if the sun is shining or not.

We are, however, looking at a modification to the recorder which should enable us to use the WMO threshold as the sun ON decision point as well as producing fairly accurate W/M-2 readings.

Regards
Alan

gemini06720 · **Posted:** Sun Sep 25, 2011 11:01 am

apenwith wrote:

...We are, however, looking at a modification to the recorder which should enable us to use the WMO threshold as the sun ON decision point as well as producing fairly accurate W/M-2 readings.

Alan, I do hope you (and Ole) will keep (or make) both options available, the original B-L 'check for sunshine every second' option and the MO 'checks the average radiation of 30 readings at 2 second intervals' option...

Just because the MO instruments use a different measuring method does not mean that it is the 'right' one... :roll:

beteljuice · **Posted:** Sun Sep 25, 2011 12:01 pm

For once I agree with Ray

It would be a shame (if the readings are accurate) to 'dumb down' the kit.

You may have created a new 'standard' :clap:

apenwith · **Posted:** Sun Sep 25, 2011 4:37 pm

Hi

Thanks for the comments. We would love to set a new standard but two old men in their sheds are unlikely to do that. The modification would not remove the accuracy that we now have (and actually may well improve it) but would add the radiation data so it would be possible in theory to choose either method. For all weather data there are likely to be variations over quite small distances but the comparison of my sun data with the Met Office site about 20Km away shows very close daily figures over several months (quite apart from the actual trial). So there is no intention to 'dumb down' but having both methods available might be a way of saying ' Yes we can do it your way - but ours is better '. After all Campbell and Stokes must have started in a small way and became the original standard.
Interestingly some of the more modern data has been dumbed down to make historical comparisons with the CS possible.
Regards
Alan

gemini06720 · **Posted:** Mon Sep 26, 2011 1:21 am

Hey, old man Alan (and Ole too)... :mrgreen:

Alan, by keeping (and making available) the original sunshine recorder 'check for sunshine every second' option (as default) you are certainly not saying/stating that the concept used into the sunshine recorder is better than the concept used inside the Met Office (probably) super-expensive sunshine recorder unit, you are just saying/stating that there are other ways to get the same/similar (and as accurate) data from a unit that can/could/would be affordable (priced) to an average-man... :roll:

Another point to take into consideration ... your (and Ole's) sunshine recorder is already being tested/used at quite a few places around the world where the Met Office (Campbell and Stokes) standards are neither respected nor supported (such as in Canada and in the United States of America) ... thus, the 'actual' standards of your (and Ole's) sunshine recorder are IT, the average-man sunshine recorder standards...

Olejul · **Posted:** Mon Nov 07, 2011 7:43 pm

Long time - no hear.

Just an update on that we have now a test installation in operation in Venezuela.

Location is just 10° north of equator and we are now looking forward to see how the sun recorder will perform so close to equator.

You can follow the performance as usually for all the test sites on http://www.sunrecorder.net

We have decided to modify the recorder unit slightly by introducing as light filter which improves the recorders capability to detect a sun rise quite significantly.

Modification kits are on the way to our test users.

Best regards

Alan & Ole

yv1hx · **Posted:** Mon Nov 07, 2011 8:10 pm

Olejul wrote:

Just an update on that we have now a test installation in operation in Venezuela.

Location is just 10° north of equator and we are now looking forward to see how the sun recorder will perform so close to equator.

You can follow the performance as usually for all the test sites on http://www.sunrecorder.net

Just an follow up: This instrument will be co-located with a scientific grade Solar & UV radiometer now in way.
I hope the radiometer figures will be very helpful to Alan & Ole for fine-tuning the B+L Sun recorder.

Best regards,

yv1hx · **Posted:** Mon Nov 07, 2011 8:25 pm

46.1C Glup! I hope the SR is not overheating!

Attachment:

SunRecorderTemp.PNG

PaulMy · **Posted:** Thu Nov 10, 2011 1:52 am

Marco-Luis,
I had that concern

as well in the summer but won't have to worry about that for the next 6 to 8 months. Glad to see your'e on the map.

Paul

yv1hx · **Posted:** Mon Nov 14, 2011 4:19 am

Thanks you Paul!

PaulMy · **Posted:** Mon Nov 14, 2011 5:13 am

Marco-Luis,
I have checked http://met.ivic.gob.ve and http://met.ivic.gob.ve/cvm
Do you have the B-L SR images included on these pages, and if so, where? My Spanish reading is not so good :oops:

I did see temperature there is 24C at the moment, and we have 17C which is very mild for us for this time of year and especially at midnight.

Our mild temperature made it much more comfortable being on the roof today when I rewired my SR mounting in a more permanent way, and also much more protection for our upcoming winter conditions.

By the looks of your sunshine recording, I'll loose my record of continuous days of some sunshine :twisted:

but that will not be for at least another 3 month :lol:

Paul

yv1hx · **Posted:** Tue Nov 15, 2011 2:24 am

Dear Paul,

PaulMy wrote:

Marco-Luis,
I have checked http://met.ivic.gob.ve and http://met.ivic.gob.ve/cvm
Do you have the B-L SR images included on these pages, and if so, where? My Spanish reading is not so good :oops:

Don't worry, maybe your Spanish is better than my English proficiency :lol:

At this time there is no SR images active in our web site, these images will be available in http://met.ivic.gob.ve/red/palmarejo/ but I have to solve the language issue :bash:

Since our country official language is Spanish AND our web site belongs to an Official Government Research agency, is not good idea publish data in English without proper translating. :roll:

PaulMy wrote:

I did see temperature there is 24C at the moment, and we have 17C which is very mild for us for this time of year and especially at midnight.

Our mild temperature made it much more comfortable being on the roof today when I rewired my SR mounting in a more permanent way, and also much more protection for our upcoming winter conditions.

Where you get this 24c? maybe from one of our partner stations in or near Caracas? Our main offices are about 1800 m over sea level, in a very cold mountain called "Altos de Pipe", in Miranda state, about half an hour from Caracas. We are registered there 12c at some point...

This station: http://met.ivic.gob.ve/red/Tarabana/index.html is about 20 kms north from the facility where the SR is deployed. You should use this for temperature reference until our reference weather station will be installed. (A Vaisala WXT520)

PaulMy wrote:

By the looks of your sunshine recording, I'll loose my record of continuous days of some sunshine :twisted:

but that will not be for at least another 3 month :lol:

Paul

By coincidence, these latter days has been very rainy and cloudy, except today

Don't worry I'm pretty sure about breaking yours records in a few months :twisted:

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