This document specifies methods for determining changes in colour and other appearance properties, and variations in mechanical or other properties, of plastics that have been exposed to glass-filtered solar radiation, to natural weathering or to simulated solar radiation from a laboratory source.

The procedure used to analyse data depends on whether the test used to characterize the materials being exposed is destructive or non-destructive. The exposures are conducted under conditions specified in specific exposure standards (e.g. the ISO 877 series and the ISO 4892 series).