ELDONET - European Light Dosimeter Network hardware and software

A three-channel dosimeter has been developed to measure solar radiation in the UV-B (280-315 nm), UV-A (315-400 nm) and PAR (400-700 nm) wavelength ba nds. A total of 31 instruments have been installed in Europe from Abisko in Northern Sweden to Gran Canaria, covering most light-climate zones. In add ition, instruments are installed in India, Africa, New Zealand and South Am erica. Seven of the instruments have been installed under water (each in co njunction with a terrestrial instrument), and two instruments are located i n high mountain locations (Zugspitze, Germany and Sierra Nevada, Spain). Th e instruments use an integrating Ulbricht sphere and silicon photodiodes in combination with custom-made filters. All instruments are carefully calibr ated to ensure a high standard of quality control and documentation. The so ftware records all data ( three Light channels, external and internal tempe rature and depth for the underwater instruments) at 1 min intervals, displa ys them on a PC, stores the data on disk and transmits the data to the cent ral server in Pisa (http:/ /power.ib.pi.cnr.it:80/ eldonet), where all avai lable data can be seen in graphical form and downloaded as ASCII files. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.