Biospherical Instruments has long been involved in activities beyond simply building environmental instrumentation, and frequently this carries over to the underlying scientific research and environmental monitoring. The numerous scientific publications by our staff attests to this involvement. Our involvement has ranged from going on cruises for the first deployments of new instrumentation (such as the BIOWATT program), to working with municipalities on novel drinking water monitoring systems (for over 20 years), to deploying and operating international programs for monitoring UV irradiance in polar regions lasting over 20 years. As an example of the scope of such monitoring programs, Table 1 shows the outline of this UV monitoring network.
General Quality Assurance and Quality Control ProgramThe QA/QC program of the NSF UV Spectroradiometer Network includes the following elements:
All site operators are trained at BSI's San Diego facility, and documented operating procedures are used. Instrument maintenance is performed during annual site visits. A more detailed list of the QA/QC activities is presented in Table 1.
Table 1. Frequency of data acquision, quality control/assurance, and publication.
Every 5 Minutes | Bi-weekly |
Temperatures and power checks | System calibration with site standards |
Monochromator position check | |
Ancillary sensors measurements | Monthly |
Detection of system errors by software | Analysis of calibration and standards stability |
Daily | Yearly |
Responsivity determination | Operator training at San Diego |
Wavelength alignment charaterization | Site visits including: |
Checks by the site operators | Scheduled maintenance |
Onsite preliminary UV-B calculations | Operation audit (testing) |
Standards comparison | |
Weekly | Engineering upgrades |
Data transfers | Reprocessing of all calibrations and data |
Data archive checks | Final data check |
System performance reviews | Report and CD-ROM generation |
Preliminary database updates | |
System parameter time series and irradiance | Additional Actiivities |
value checks | Participation in intercomparisons |
Website updates | Comparisons with radiative transfer models |
Re-evaluation and testing of methods | |