Many scientists, including Dr. Amit Tandon, collaborated on the paper: “Ocean surface radiation measurement best practices [Riihimaki et al. 2024]”. This article explores techniques and best practices for measuring downwelling shortwave (SWR) and longwave (LWR) broadband radiation, focusing on minimizing errors in these measurements.

Challenges in measuring upwelling SWR and LWR on oceans and land are also discussed, with suggestions for mounting sensors on towers in specific orientations to reduce shadows and enhance accuracy. The article highlights the importance of accurate surface albedo representation, particularly on sea and land ice, and compares the effectiveness of using UAVs versus land station towers for these measurements. It also reviews strategies for surface temperature measurements as an indirect tool for upwelling LWR assessments.
It recommends using instruments like pyrheliometer and a shaded pyranometer for SWR to avoid errors. For LWR measurements, the article advises using shaded devices to reduce solar leakage and recommends ventilated instruments to prevent dust contamination.
The article emphasizes best practices for installing and maintaining measurement systems and advises consistent sampling rates, careful maintenance to prevent errors from natural conditions. Despite following these practices, some errors may persist, which can be corrected through post-processing, calibration, and quality control schemes (emphasizing on using redundant measurements).
The article concludes by stressing the importance of adhering to global calibration standards and suggests field intercomparison between land and sea platforms to build a unified system for measuring climate variables. For the ease of the readers, the authors summarize each of the best practices in measuring ocean radiative heat fluxes in Table 5.
More information about the article can be found here.

Congratulations Dr. Tandon