Abstract. Sensitivity studies indicate that among the different error sources of ground-based sky radiometer observations, the pointing error has an important role in the correct retrieving of aerosol properties, being specially critical for the characterization of desert dust aerosol. The present work analyzes the first results of two new measurements, cross and matrix, specifically designed for an evaluation of the pointing error in the standard instrument of the Aerosol Robotic Network, the Cimel CE-318 sun-photometer. The first part of the analysis contains a preliminary study whose results conclude on the need of a sun movement correction for the correct evaluation of the pointing error from both new measurements. Once this correction is applied, both measurements show an equivalent behavior with differences under 0.01° in the evaluation of the pointing error. The second part of the analysis includes the incorporation of the cross scenario in the AERONET routine measurement protocol in order to monitor the pointing error in field instruments. Using the data collected for more than a year, the pointing error is evaluated on 7 sun-photometers belonging to AERONET-Europe. The pointing error values registered are generally smaller than 0.01° though in some instruments values up to 0.03° have been observed. Moreover, the pointing error evaluation has shown that this measure can be used to detect mechanical problems in the robots or dirtiness in the quadrant detector due to the stable behavior of the values against time and solar zenith angle. At the same time, the matrix scenario can be used to derive the value of the field of view. The methodology implemented and the characterization of five sun-photometers is presented in the last part of the study. To validate the method, a comparison with field of view values obtained from the vicarious calibration method was developed. The differences between both techniques are under 3%.
Extrinsic Camera Calibration with Line-Laser Projection
