Solar UV

Measurements and trends

authored by: Gunther Seckmeyer, Irina Smolskaia, Darius Pissulla, Alkis F. Bais, Kleareti Tourpali, Charoula Meleti, Christos Zerefos
Abstract: This chapter investigates the extent to which trends of ultraviolet (UV) radiation can be derived by measurements. UV radiation is a rapidly changing quantity that depends on latitude, longitude, height, incident angle, azimuth angle, wavelength and polarization parameters. The irradiance is an integrated quantity only, but it has been measured reliably at several stations since the beginning of the 1990s.Most of the existing UV irradiance data sets in the northern hemisphere show an upward trend but we show that the time series are still too short to derive meaningful trends in most cases. The reasons are the high natural variability and the high autocorrelation of UV data. At Thessaloniki there has been an upward trend caused by a decrease in aerosol content at this site. If the current predictions about further ozone changes are correct, climate-related changes in clouds, aerosols and ground albedo will dominate the expected UV changes. Future research in UV should focus on the effects of clouds and aerosols and on the characterization of the spatial distribution of UV radiation (i.e., spectral radiance) which is needed to assess UV effects in medicine, biology or air quality.
Organisation(s): Institute of Meteorology and Climatology
External Organisation(s): Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (A.U.Th.)
Academy of Athens
Type: Conference contribution
Pages: 359-368
No. of pages: 10
Publication date: 2009
Publication status: Published
Peer reviewed: Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas: Environmental Engineering
Sustainable Development Goals: SDG 12 - Responsible Consumption and Production, SDG 13 - Climate Action
Electronic version(s): https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2469-5_26 (Access: Unknown)

BibTeX

@inproceedings{73766d99cbe349f9ae4b12b5aaffdefe,
title = "Solar UV: Measurements and trends",
abstract = "This chapter investigates the extent to which trends of ultraviolet (UV) radiation can be derived by measurements. UV radiation is a rapidly changing quantity that depends on latitude, longitude, height, incident angle, azimuth angle, wavelength and polarization parameters. The irradiance is an integrated quantity only, but it has been measured reliably at several stations since the beginning of the 1990s.Most of the existing UV irradiance data sets in the northern hemisphere show an upward trend but we show that the time series are still too short to derive meaningful trends in most cases. The reasons are the high natural variability and the high autocorrelation of UV data. At Thessaloniki there has been an upward trend caused by a decrease in aerosol content at this site. If the current predictions about further ozone changes are correct, climate-related changes in clouds, aerosols and ground albedo will dominate the expected UV changes. Future research in UV should focus on the effects of clouds and aerosols and on the characterization of the spatial distribution of UV radiation (i.e., spectral radiance) which is needed to assess UV effects in medicine, biology or air quality.",
keywords = "Ozone depletion, Radiance distribution, Trend analysis, UV prediction, UV radiation",
author = "Gunther Seckmeyer and Irina Smolskaia and Darius Pissulla and Bais, {Alkis F.} and Kleareti Tourpali and Charoula Meleti and Christos Zerefos",
note = "Copyright: Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.; 2007 20th Symposium of the Montreal Protocol ; Conference date: 16-09-2007 Through 20-09-2007",
year = "2009",
doi = "10.1007/978-90-481-2469-5_26",
language = "English",
isbn = "9789048124688",
series = "Twenty Years of Ozone Decline - Proceedings of the Symposium for the 20th Anniversary of the Montreal Protocol",
publisher = "Springer Science and Business Media, LLC",
pages = "359--368",
booktitle = "Twenty Years of Ozone Decline - Proceedings of the Symposium for the 20th Anniversary of the Montreal Protocol",
}