RSS

The rotating shadowband spectroradiometer (RSS) implements the same automated shadowbanding technique used by the multifilter rotating shadowband radiometer (MFRSR), and so it too provides spectrally resolved, direct-normal, diffuse-horizontal, and global-horizontal irradiances, and can be calibrated in situ via Langley regression. The irradiance spectra are measured simultaneously at all spectral elements (pixels) in the 360-nm to 1070-nm range.

RSS105 data between 5/10/2003 and 12/05/2007 are available from the ARM Data Center in netCDF format. The RSS105 data are lamp-calibrated irradiances. The accuracy of irradiances produced by the RSS is expected to be about ±5%, which includes calibration and instrument stability errors. Ninety-five percent uncertainties (±0.02) in aerosol optical depth (AOD) can be obtained using Langley regression.

Another data set using the refurbished RSS covers the period 8/26/2009 to 3/10/2014. These data have been processed for spectral irradiances, atmospheric transmissions, and aerosol optical depths, and are available in the ARM Data Center.

• Shortwave spectral diffuse downwelling irradiance
• Shortwave spectral direct normal irradiance
• Shortwave spectral total downwelling irradiance