Preparing procedure on Meteorological Traceability

Typically, a laboratory will not have a procedure specifically for Meteorological Traceability. For a laboratory to confirm metrological traceability, a number of processes are involved where certain processes must be documented (mandatory by ISO 17025). For example, methods, procedures and supporting documentation, such as instructions, standards, manuals, and reference data must be kept up to date (clause 7.2) and a calibration programme (clause 6.4) is mandatory. These requirements from different clauses are typically linked via your Quality Manual.  An Equipment and Calibration Procedure ican be used to document how Meteorological Traceability is confirmed. Alternatively depending on the size of your laboratory, it may be included in the Method Validation and Quality Assurance Procedure.

Let’s look at the ISO 17025 requirement – that is to establish and maintain (i.e. confirm) metrological traceability of its measurement results”  What traceability does is ensure that on an ongoing basis the measurements accurately represent the specific quantity subject to measurement, within the stated uncertainty of the measurement. This is achieved through an unbroken metrological traceability chain to an international measurement standard or a national measurement standard. Simply stated a laboratory ensures metrological traceability for a measurement result by having equipment (used for the method) calibrated by laboratories conforming to ISO 17025 and or using reference materials with certified values where the reference material producers conforming to ISO 17034.

The following elements must be in place present to meet clause 6.5 requirements to ensure metrological traceability:

• a documented measurement procedure,
• quality measurement control
• suitable (performance) calibrated standards
• documented method measurement uncertainty
• defined calibration intervals,
• technical competence

For more information, have a look at

The article: What does ISO 17025:2017 require for laboratory measurement equipment and related procedures? at https://advisera.com/17025academy/blog/2019/07/25/iso-17025-measurement-requirements-of-the-standard/
The ISO 17025 toolkit document template: Equipment and Calibration Procedure at https://advisera.com/17025academy/documentation/equipment-and-calibration-procedure/
The ILAC P10:07/2020 ILAC Policy on Metrological Traceability of Measurement Results  available from https://ilac.org/publications-and-resources/