Equations for Solar Tracking.docVIP

Sensors2012,12,4074-4090;doi:10.3390/s120404074 OPENACCESS sensors ISSN1424-8220 /journal/sensors Article EquationsforSolarTracking AlexisMerlaud 1,?,MartineDeMazi`ere 1 1 2 ,ChristianHermans andAlainCornet 1 2 BelgianInstituteforSpaceAeronomy,AvenueCirculaire3,1180Brussels,Belgium; E-Mails:martine@aeronomie.be(M.D.M.);christh@oma.be(C.H.) InstituteofCondensedMatterandNanosciences,UCL,CheminduCyclotron2,1348 Louvain-La-Neuve,Belgium;E-Mail:alain.cornet@uclouvain.be ? Authortowhomcorrespondenceshouldbeaddressed;E-Mail:alexis.merlaud@aeronomie.be; Tel.:+32-2-373-03-82;Fax:+32-2-374-84-23. Received:9February2012;inrevisedform:16March2012/Accepted:16March2012/ Published:27March2012 Abstract: Direct sunlight absorption by trace gases can be used to quantify them and investigateatmosphericchemistry. Insuchexperiments,themainopticalapparatusisoften agratingoraFouriertransformspectrometer. Asolartrackerbasedonmotorizedrotating mirrorsiscommonlyusedtodirectthelightalongthespectrometeraxis,correctingforthe apparentrotationoftheSun. CalculatingtheSunazimuthandaltitudeforagiventimeand locationcanbeachievedwithhighaccuracybutdifferentsourcesofangularoffsetsappear inpracticewhenpositioningthemirrors. Afeedbackonthemotors,usingalightposition sensorclosetothespectrometer, isalmostalwaysneeded. Thispaperaimstogatherthe main geometrical formulas necessary for the use of a widely used kind of solar tracker, basedontwo45 mirrorsinaltazimuthalset-upwithalightsensoronthespectrometer,and ? toillustratethemwithatrackerdevelopedbyourgroupforatmosphericresearch. Keywords:solartracker;Fouriertransforminfraredspectrometry;algorithms Classi?cation:PACS 42.68.Wt;92.60.hd;92.60.hf;42.68.Ay 1.Introduction Spectroscopic analyses of direct incident sunlight are commonly used in atmospheric research. Such experiments make use of the Sun as a light source to quantify molecular absorptions in  Sensors2012,12 4075 the atmosphere and then retrieve trace gas abundances.