Kipp&Zonen BSRN Scientific Solar Monitoring System - Manual (Page 166)

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Annex G Sample log sheets
The prim ary reason for keeping a log of the activities about the station is to help in determ ining the
quality of the data. Until recently such logs were kept either by filling out form s on a daily basis or writing
inform ation into a station log book. The form er has a tendency to encourage the observer/technician
to record only those activities that are required by the sheet, while the latter is often used only for
extraordinary occurrences or events (e.g. the station was hit by a tornado), but not the routine activities
associated with the day-to-day operation of the observatory (e.g. cleaning the instrum ents). W hatever
form is used m ust be determ ined in concert with the observer so that the inform ation required by the
scientist analysing the data can be easily discovered. Log sheets are essential in the rapid and accurate
quality assurance of solar radiation data.
Recently, with the developm ent of sophisticated com puter data acquisition program s, the norm al log
sheet can be com pleted electronically. The advantage of such a form is that flags set by the data acquisition
system can be written to the log autom atically. Electronic logs provide a m eans of directly and perm anently
linking the data with a record of activities at the observatory. Care m ust be taken in the design of such
a log so that text can be easily added beyond the norm al “check-off” inform ation. Furtherm ore, no m atter
how autom ated the site, it is essential to provide a forum for the technician responsible for the maintenance
of the instrum ents, etc. to note any abnorm alities.
Most log sheets provide basic checks for the instrum ents, the trackers, the data acquisition system
and the clock. Many provide areas where the technician can insert the local tem perature, cloud am ount,
surface conditions, etc. The overall design should also encourage com m ents beyond the daily routine
inform ation for which the sheet is designed.
The next three pages contain sam ples of log sheets which have been used successfully. Exam ple
1 is from the University of Calgary, where the log was designed for the International Daylight Measurem ent
Program (only the radiation portion is reproduced). Exam ple 2 is a log sheet developed by the National
Renewable Energy Laboratory for the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) network
of solar radiation stations. Exam ple 3 is a form er log sheet developed for the Canadian BSRN site.