An automatic global and direct solar spectral irradiance system has been designed based on two LICOR spectroradiometers equipped with fibre optics and remote cosine sensors. To measure direct irradiance a sun tracker based on step motors has been developed. The whole system is autonomous and works continuously. From the measurements provided by this system a spectral irradiance database in the 330-1100 nm range has been created. This database contains normal direct and global horizontal irradiances as well as diffuse irradiance on a horizontal plane, together with total atmospheric optical thickness and aerosol optical depth, (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.