A microprocessor controlled auto sun-tracking 10-channel solar radiometer system has been designed and fabricated. The instrument measurements are employed in determining the atmospheric optical depths at 10 discrete wavelengths through the visible and near IR regions. The solar radiometer consists of 10 parallel Field Of View (FOV) telescopes which are all pointed towards the sun via an active auto sun-tracking system. Each channel consists of a geometrical aperture-defined telescope, interference filter and silicon photodiode/op amp combination. The data is collected by a Data Acquisition System (DAS) controlled by an 8-bit microprocessor. The automated DAS tracks the sun, measures the temperature of detectors as well as the output of all 10 channels and writes these values to a RAM. At the end of data collection period the collected data can be serially transferred to an IBM compatible personal computer.
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