Pyrheliometer

A pyrheliometer is a scientific instrument used to measure the direct solar irradiance, or the amount of solar radiation received at the Earth's surface from the sun's direct beam. It is designed to measure the total amount of solar radiation within a specific wavelength range, typically from 0.3 to 3 micrometers.

The instrument consists of a thermopile detector that is enclosed in a glass dome. The thermopile measures the temperature difference between two surfaces, one of which is exposed to the sun's radiation, while the other is kept at a constant temperature. The temperature difference is proportional to the amount of solar radiation received by the exposed surface.

Pyrheliometers are widely used in meteorology, climatology, solar energy research, and other fields where precise measurements of solar radiation are required. They are typically calibrated against a reference instrument and require regular maintenance to ensure accurate measurements.

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AI Technical Trustability Update

While working on an update to my RF Cafe Espresso Engineering Workbook project to add a couple calculators about FM sidebands (available soon). The good news is that AI provided excellent VBA code to generate a set of Bessel function plots. The bad news is when I asked for a table showing at which modulation indices sidebands 0 (carrier) through 5 vanish, none of the agents got it right. Some were really bad. The AI agents typically explain their reason and method correctly, then go on to produces bad results. Even after pointing out errors, subsequent results are still wrong. I do a lot of AI work and see this often, even with subscribing to professional versions. I ultimately generated the table myself. There is going to be a lot of inaccurate information out there based on unverified AI queries, so beware.

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