Measurement of Temperature

Dr. J.H. Sharp

Radiation pyrometers
All the temperature sensors described so far rely upon physical contact between the sensor and the object
whose temperature is being measured, to ensure that the sensor and object are at the same temperature. In
this section we shall look at a class of devices called radiation pyrometers which measure temperature
without any contact between measured object and sensor.
Radiation pyrometers can be used at distances ranging from a few centimetres to a few metres away from
the object whose temperature is being measured, which is called the target. They work by detecting
radiation from the target and using it to determine the target's temperature.

Radiation from black bodies

The range of wavelengths emitted by a heated body depends on the materials of which the body consists.
That is not the case for an ideal radiator or absorber. Such an ideal object absorbs and thus emits radiation
of all frequencies equally and fully. A radiator/absorber of this kind is called a blackbody, and its radiation
spectrum is referred to as blackbody radiation, which depends on only one parameter, its temperature.
Scientists devise and study such ideal objects because their properties can be known exactly. This
information can then be used to determine and understand why real objects, such as a piece of iron or glass,
a cloud, or a star, behave differently.
A good approximation of a blackbody is a piece of coal or, better yet, a cavity in a piece of coal that is
visible through a small opening. There is one property of blackbody radiation which is familiar to everyone
but which is actually quite mysterious. As the piece of coal is heated to higher and higher temperatures, one
first observes a dull red glow, followed by a change in colour to bright red; as the temperature is increased
further, the colour changes to yellow and finally to white. White is not itself a colour but rather the visual
effect of the combination of all primary colours. The fact that white glow is observed at high temperatures
means that the colour blue has been added to the ones observed at lower temperatures. This colour change
with temperature is mysterious because one would expect, as the energy (or temperature) is increased, just
more of the same and not something entirely different. For example, as one increases the power of a radio
amplifier, one hears the music louder but not at a higher pitch. For an explanation of this one must venture
into the field of quantum mechanics.
Radiation pyrometers work by detecting the infrared radiation given off by the object whose temperature is
being measured. Radiation pyrometers can be used to measure temperatures as low as 50oC, so clearly
infrared radiation is not emitted only by 'hot objects'. In fact, any object whose temperature is not absolute
zero (0K) emits radiation. The amount it emits depends upon its temperature. At the same time it receives
radiation from everything around it. Some of this radiation is absorbed, but some is reflected and some may
be transmitted through the object. (For example, glass and air transmit nearly all the radiation in the visible
band which is incident upon them.)
As we are concerned here with radiation that is emitted, we shall start by considering those objects which
are the best emitters of radiation at any temperature, blackbodies. Although there are no perfect black
bodies, it is useful to examine the properties of the radiation emitted by such bodies because several of the
techniques used with radiation pyrometers are designed to make the target appear to the pyrometer to be a
black body.

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Measurement of Temperature

Dr. J.H. Sharp

Figure 1
Figure 1 shows the way in which total emitted power per unit area per unit wavelength is distributed over
wavelengths for black bodies at temperatures from 300K to 6000K.
The differences between the power distributions at different temperatures are exploited by radiation
pyrometers, so we must understand what these curves mean. Let us consider the 6000 K curve. It describes
the radiation emitted by one m2 of the surface of a blackbody at that temperature at various wavelengths.
The power per unit area of the radiation emitted in any band of wavelengths is given by the value of the
curve in that band multiplied by the width of the band. Another way of looking at it is that the power per
unit area in any band equals the area under the curve in that band. Take, for example, the visible radiation
emitted by a black body at 6000K. The power per unit area equals the area of the shaded region under the
curve in Figure 1, or approximately 1014 Wm-3 times the width of the band, 0.35m, or about 35 MW/m2 of
surface area. To find the total power per unit area radiated by a black body at all wavelengths at a
particular temperature, we would integrate the total area under the curve for that temperature.
By examining the way in which the area under the curves in Figure 1 increases, we can see that the power
per unit area emitted by a black body increases rapidly with increasing temperature. In fact, the total power
per unit area, M, increases in proportion to the fourth power of the thermodynamic temperature of a black
body. This relationship is called Stefan's law, or the Stefan-Boltzmann law, and is expressed as
M = T4
where is a constant called Stefan's constant, or the Stefan-Boltzmann constant, which has the value
= 5.67 x 10-8 W m-2 K-4
Some radiation pyrometers measure radiation at all wavelengths. Their response is thus described by
Stefan's law.
Other radiation pyrometers only measure radiation in a narrow wavelength band, with the band carefully
chosen to suit the application. The curves in Figure 1 are nested one within the other, showing that the
power per unit area per unit wavelength radiated at any wavelength always increases with increasing
temperature. Consider, for example, how the power per unit area per unit wavelength increases with
increasing temperature along the line drawn at 3m.

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Dr. J.H. Sharp

To describe the way the power per unit area per unit wavelength varies with temperature quantitatively we
need the algebraic expression which the curves in Figure 1 represent. It is called Planck's law and is given
below :

M =

A
[exp( B / T ) 1]
5

where
is the wavelength,
A = 3.74 10-16 Wm2,
B = 1.44 10-2 mK.
There is a third method used in some radiation pyrometers. This is to compare the relative amounts of
power per unit area per unit wavelength at two different wavelengths. If you compare the power at 3m and
at 4m in Figure 1, you will see that the relative values are different on each of the different temperature
curves.

Radiation from objects other than black bodies

The principles in the last section describe how to relate radiated power to temperature for a black body.
Unfortunately, there is no way to guarantee that the object whose temperature you want to measure will
turn out to radiate like a blackbody. In fact, a blackbody, in addition to being the best absorber of
electromagnetic radiation, is also the best emitter. Any other object at the same temperature will emit less,
or at best the same, power per unit area at any wavelength. (See Figure 2 for an illustration of this.)

Figure 2 : Blackbody radiation compared with possible blackbody radiation from a non-blackbody
The reason for this is that when any object is at the same temperature as its surroundings its absorption and
radiation of energy must balance. Since a non-black body absorbs less than a black body would in the same
situation, it must also radiate less. This principle applies not only to the total radiation, but to the radiation
at each wavelength. It can be summarised as Kirchoffs law.
Kirchoffs law:
If an object at a certain temperature T absorbs a certain fraction of the radiation incident upon it at a
wavelength , then it will emit a fraction of the radiation at that wavelength that a black body at
temperature T would emit.

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Measurement of Temperature

Dr. J.H. Sharp

The fraction is called the emissivity of the object. As in the example in Figure 2, it may vary with the
wavelength. It may also vary with the temperature of the object.
You can now see that it is not sufficient to measure the radiation emitted by an object to determine its
temperature. You must also know its emissivity. Emissivities are not always easy to determine and thus
constitute one of the major sources of uncertainty in radiation pyrometry. There are several ways of
overcoming this problem:
1 The emissivity may have been measured and reported in the technical literature. (This is the easy
solution!)
2 It may be possible to calibrate the radiation pyrometer on the actual object being tested by using some
other transducer such as a thermocouple or resistance thermometer. Of course, if you are using a
radiation pyrometer because the nature of the measurement makes contact impossible (e.g. in the
interior of a blast furnace), this technique will not be of much help.
3 The object may have an emissivity which is nearly 1 at certain wavelengths (see, for example, the
points marked A on Figure 2). If the radiation pyrometer has a filter in the path of the radiation, which
blocks all radiation except that in a band where the target has an emissivity of nearly 1, the target will
appear to be a black body to the pyrometer. This is a very
widely used technique. A wide variety of filters are available to
suit the specialised needs of different industrial applications.
4 If it is possible to attach a device such as the one in Figure 3 to
the target, the radiation emitted by the target, when viewed
through the opening in the device, will approximate that of a
black body. The device is a cavity with reflecting walls and an
opening which is small compared with its interior surface area.
Radiation entering the cavity will either be absorbed by or
reflected off the target or reflected off the walls of the cavity.
Each time it is reflected off the cavity walls and back to the
target, some will be absorbed. After multiple reflections the
fraction not absorbed by the target will be very small. In this
way the target can be made to appear to be a black body with an
Figure 3
effective emissivity of about 0.99.

Incidentally, by a similar argument, the radiation emitted from the interior of an oven with a small hole in it
also approximates that of a black body when viewed through the hole. Such furnaces are used as reference
sources to calibrate radiation pyrometers.
The emissivity of the target itself is not the only emissivity problem encountered in radiation pyrometry.
The radiation is transmitted from the target to the pyrometer through air. The emissivity of air is nearly
zero in the visible band. Since it transmits most of the light in that band, very little is left to be absorbed.
Remember, by Kirchoff's law, the fraction of radiation absorbed at any wavelength is equal to the
emissivity at that wavelength. Thus the emissivity of air in the visible band is nearly zero.

Figure 4 : Atmospheric absorption as a function of wavelength

However, air is not so transparent to all radiation. The fraction it absorbs rises considerably at some
wavelengths in the infrared (see Figure 4) so, at those wavelengths, air is relatively opaque. Since the
radiation from a target must pass through air on its way to a radiation pyrometer, the absorption

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Measurement of Temperature

Dr. J.H. Sharp

characteristics of the atmosphere will affect the radiation received by the pyrometer. Moreover, the
atmospheric absorption depends upon the distance between the target and the pyrometer. By using filters to
limit the radiation received by the pyrometer to a band in one of the atmospheric 'windows' where the
absorption is relatively low, this problem can be largely eliminated.
Similarly, absorption by any lenses used in the pyrometer's optical system also modifies the radiation its
detector receives. However, as this is known in advance, the calibration of the pyrometer can be made to
include its effects.

Pyrometer optical systems and detectors

The radiation laws we have considered up to now give the total radiation in all directions from a radiating
object. Of course, when a radiation pyrometer is aimed at a target it only intercepts a fraction of the emitted
radiation.
Figure 5 shows a simplified diagram of a pyrometer in which the 'optical system' is simply a hole, or
aperture. When the sensing head of the pyrometer is in position 1, the only part of the radiation from the
target which can reach the detector is that emitted by area AA', because it falls within the cone of
acceptance of the aperture. If the sensing head is moved to position 2, emission from BB', a larger area, can
reach the detector. On the other hand, as shown by Figure 5(b), a smaller fraction of the radiation emitted
by each point on the target reaches the detector in position 2 than in position 1. The fraction received is
inversely proportional to the square of the distance. The area of the target within the cone of acceptance of
the aperture is directly proportional to the square of the distance. Thus the decrease in radiation received
from each point on the target is just balanced by the increased area when the sensing head is moved from
position 1 to position 2. The energy reaching the detector therefore does not depend upon the distance to
the target so long as the target completely fills the cone of acceptance of the aperture.

Figure 5
If a lens is used to focus the incoming radiation (as shown in Figure 6), instead of just an aperture, the
effect is to decrease the area of the target seen by the detector for a given aperture size and distance. The
area seen without the lens can be seen from the dashed lines in the figure. If the area was decreased by
making the aperture smaller rather than using a lens, the amount of radiation reaching the detector would
also be decreased. Thus, for a given target size, the use of a lens increases the sensitivity of the radiation
pyrometer.

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Measurement of Temperature

Dr. J.H. Sharp

Figure 6 : The effect of a lens in the optical system is to increase the effective aperture
Most of the types of temperature transducer described earlier are used as detectors in radiation pyrometers.
Some detectors use thermocouples. Either a single thermocouple or several connected in series to form a
thermopile are used (see Figure 7). The output voltage of a thermopile consisting of n thermocouples with
all hot junctions at the same temperature and all cold junctions at the same temperature is just n times that
of a single thermocouple.

Figure 7
Some radiation pyrometers use thin flakes or films of metals or semiconducting material as resistance
temperature sensors. Resistance sensors of this form are called bolometers.
Some pyrometers use detectors which are not thermal detectors, but instead measure the radiation directly
using the photoelectric effect. The pyrometer specification, described below, is an example of such a
pyrometer.

An infrared thermometer
The specification given below describes a portable infrared thermometer. Included in the specification is a
labelled photograph of the instrument. Its optical system is single-lens reflex, which means that the device
feels rather like a camera to use. The operator looks through the eyepiece, which contains a protective
filter, at the target and focuses the target on the small measurement area indicated in the eyepiece. When
the trigger switch is pressed, a digital display of the temperature of the target appears in the eyepiece area,
as indicated in the drawing in the specification. If the temperature of the target is outside the range of the
pyrometer, a warning light flashes.
An alternative way of using the pyrometer is to put it on a tripod and take readings from either the analogue
or the digital output socket to a display device, a data recorder or a digital computer.

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Measurement of Temperature

Dr. J.H. Sharp

The control knob for the emissivity of the target is clearly visible in the photograph of the pyrometer. The
operator must set this appropriately for the object whose temperature is being measured.
Also visible in the photograph is a control knob labelled 'peak/cont./valley'. Setting this knob to 'peak'
means that the display shows the highest temperature reading obtained while the trigger switch is
depressed. Similarly, 'valley' leads to the lowest reading being displayed. This is not a facility available on
all pyrometers and is obviously only required in certain types of applications.
You can see from the specification that this pyrometer uses rather short wavelength infrared radiation, i.e.
radiation not far from the red end of the visible spectrum. The silicon photocell works effectively with
radiation in this range, producing a photoelectric current which depends on the radiation received. This
signal is passed first through a type of amplifier called a logarithmic amplifier. The output of this amplifier
changes in a linear fashion when the input changes exponentially. The amplifier's output is fed into a
microprocessor which performs additional linearisation and also allows for the preset emissivity value,
controls the display in the eyepiece, and so on.
Note that another advantage in using infrared radiation in the range 0.8 to 1.1m is that this range is in one
of the infrared windows shown in Figure 4. Hence absorption from the air is low.
This pyrometer is an example of a device which has been made particularly simple to use. However, as
with all pyrometers, a correct setting of the emissivity of the target is crucial to obtaining a satisfactory
temperature value.

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Measurement of Temperature

Dr. J.H. Sharp

Specification 2.12 Radiation pyrometer

Land Instruments Ltd, Portable infrared thermometer Type Cyclops 52
Detector
Silicon photocell
Spectral response
0.8 - l.lm
Focusing
Variable 1 m to infinity. Down to 203 mm with
optional close-up lens
Minimum measurement area
5 mm diameter at 1 m. 0.5 mm with closeuplens
Display
4-digit LCD with over- and under-range indicator
warning.
Update time approx 06 s.

Measuring range
600 oC to 3000 oC in 1 oC increments
Accuracy
0.5% of reading
Repeatability
0.1% of full scale
Emissivity adjustment
Continuous 0.1 to 1.0
View through the eyepiece, showing the
measurement area and the digital temperature
display

Response time
80 ms
Operating temperature range
0-50 "C
Power source
9 V battery or external power source
Dimensions (mm)
210 x 70 x 140
Mass
0.8 kg

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