HISTORY OF SOLAR RADIOMETRY AND THE WORLD RADIOMETRIC REFERENCE

The history of solar radiometry since the first pyrheliometer of Pouillet is presented. After the invention of the Angstrom and the Smithsonian pyrheliometers around the turn of this century two different "scales" were in use. Comparisons with absolute cavity radiometers developed in America and Europe have been performed since about 1910 which show remarkably accurate measurements in terms of the SI units. However, these results have never been accepted and several rules have been established to reference radiation measurements in the meteorological community and to remedy the unsatisfactory fact of having different "scales". Unfortunately none of these rules led to a reference close to the SI units of irradiance, confusing the issue even more. With the advent of modern absolute radiometers in the late 1960s the situation improved and led to the definition of the World Radiometric Reference in use by the meteorological community since 1981. This reference has an estimated accuracy of 0,3% and guarantees the worldwide homogeneity of radiation measurements within 0,1% precision.