Sources of error in UV radiation measurements

Increasing commercial, scientific, and technical applications involving ult raviolet (UV) radiation have led to the demand for improved understanding o f the performance of instrumentation used to measure this radiation. There has been an effort by manufacturers of UV measuring devices (meters) to pro duce simple, optically filtered sensor systems to accomplish the varied mea surement needs. We address common sources of measurement errors using these meters. The uncertainty in the calibration of the instrument depends on th e response of the UV meter to the spectrum of the sources used and its simi larity to the spectrum of the quantity to be measured. In addition, large e rrors can occur due to out-of-band, non-linear, and non-ideal geometric or spatial response of the UV meters. Finally, in many applications, how well the response of the UV meter approximates the presumed action spectrum need s to be understood for optimal use of the meters.