ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses many of the details necessary to locate, construct, and maintain a quality solar and infrared radiation monitoring station and factors to consider in choosing a site and determining the requirements for the data-logging system. Maintenance of the station is described along with best practices for cleaning the instruments and following standard procedures to record station maintenance. A solid electrical ground is important for lightning protection and signal noise protection. For areas of frequent lightning strikes, a more robust grounding strategy might be needed. For more detailed information on grounding and shielding see Morrison. Some data loggers come with software that will automatically synchronize the data-logger clock with the computer clock. The data logger should be selected to have enough analog inputs, voltage excitation sources, and control ports to handle the number of sensors being installed at the site. Choice of time interval for the measurements is often specified by the requirements of the user of the data.
