Mauna Loa Observatory: Sun Photometers at Work

Here's a brief clip of part of a sun photometer calibration session that lasted more than three hours. Sun photometers are instruments that are pointed at the sun to measure haze and dust in the atmosphere. Sun photometers should be calibrated at least annually, and one of the best places to perform this task is NOAA's Mauna Loa Observatory (MLO) on the Big Island of Hawaii. MLO is at an elevation of about 3,400 meters (11,200 feet), which is usually above most of the atmosphere's pollution, dust and so forth.

I am currently at MLO to calibrate a number of sun photometers, and Dr. Joseph Shaw (at left) is also here to work with a team using a new kind of instrument for studying the sky (more to follow). Today we calibrated three sun photometers made by Joe's father, Glenn Shaw, who discovered that Asian dust crosses the Pacific during the spring months. As you can see, years of experience have allowed us to rapidly perform these very precise calibrations. The calibrations have just been completed, and the results for the one set of data we checked are excellent.

More about the Mauna Loa Observatory will be posted as time permits. You can see photos of MLO at www.forrestmims.org.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Hawaii
• Mauna
• Loa
• Observatory
• sun
• photometer
• joseph
• shaw
• glenn

[astronomerroyal]

Interesting videos. Congratulations on your recent Discover magazine glory.

I've had a lot of fun with your engineer's notebooks, which have opened up all sorts of possibilities and an endless parade of enjoyable projects. Many thanks.