Current measurement and calibration capabilities for mercury vapor in air are maintained at levels of 0.2–40 μg Hg m−3. In this work, a mercury vapor generator has been developed to establish metrological traceability to the international system of units (SI) for mercury vapor measurement results ≤15 ng Hg m−3, i.e. closer to realistic ambient air concentrations (1–2 ng Hg m−3) []. Innovations developed included a modified type of diffusion cell, a new measurement method to weigh the loss in (mercury) mass of these diffusion cells during use (ca. 6–8 μg mass difference between successive weighings), and a new housing for the diffusion cells to maximize flow characteristics and to minimize temperature variations and adsorption effects. The newly developed mercury vapor generator system was tested by using diffusion cells generating 0.8 and 16 ng Hg min−1. The results also show that the filter system, to produce mercury free air, is working properly. Furthermore, and most importantly, the system is producing a flow with a stable mercury vapor content. Some additional improvements are still required to allow the developed mercury vapor generator to produce SI traceable mercury vapor concentrations, based upon gravimetry, at much lower concentration levels and reduced measurement uncertainties than have been achieved previously. The challenges to be met are especially related to developing more robust diffusion cells and better mass measurement conditions. The developed mercury vapor generator will contribute to more reliable measurement results of mercury vapor at ambient and background air levels, and also to better safety standards and cost reductions in industrial processes, such as the liquefied natural gas field, where aluminum main cryogenic heat exchangers are used which are particularly prone to corrosion caused by mercury.
-We present a portable traceability solution for the ground-based optical calibration of earth observation (EO) instruments. Currently, traceability for this type of calibration is typically based on spectral irradiance sources (e.g. FEL lamps) calibrated at a national metrology institute (NMI). Disadvantages of this source-based traceability are the inflexibility in operating conditions of the source, which are limited to the settings used during calibration at the NMI, and the susceptibility to aging, which requires frequent recalibrations, and which cannot be easily checked on-site. The detector-based traceability solution presented in this work uses a portable filter radiometer to calibrate light sources onsite, immediately before and after, or even during instrument calibration. The filter radiometer itself is traceable to the primary standard of radiometry in the Netherlands. We will discuss the design and realization, calibration and performance verification.
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