- An advanced method for the calibration of tungsten strip lamps is reviewed in detail. The method is based on measuring the ratio of the spectral radiances of two sources at different radiance temperatures TL by radiation thermometry. Instead of using the distribution temperature and the colour emissivity for the calculation of the radiance temperature, the derivative dTL/dλ in the vicinity of the effective wavelength of the detection system is applied. In a first step high-stability vacuum tungsten strip lamps are calibrated as first-order working standards with respect to fixed points of the International Temperature Scale of 1990 (ITS-90). In a subsequent step, secondary working standards are calibrated relative to these first order working standards with light of different wavelengths determined by interference filters. A detailed description of the evaluation procedure for the determination of the radiance temperature of the lamps is given and several problems encountered in operating the lamps are discussed. The standard uncertainties of the radiance temperature are below 0.2 K for the first order working standards.
