Apparatus and method, as may be used to acquire different components of solar irradiance in a solar-based power generation system or as may be used in a sky imager, are provided. A filter matrix (12) may be arranged to receive incident solar irradiance. The filter matrix may include an array of pixels (20) controllable to selectively acquire different components of the solar irradiance. A module, such as a photosensor (22) or calculator module (29) may be configured to determine a spatial location of at least one of the irradiance components relative to the array of pixels of the filter matrix. A controller (26) may be electrically coupled to the module to supply a control signal to the filter matrix based on the determined location of the irradiance component to pass a selected one of the irradiance components.