[1] The Dutch-Finnish Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on board the NASA EOS Aura spacecraft is a nadir viewing spectrometer that measures solar reflected and backscattered light in a selected range of the ultraviolet and visible spectrum. The instrument has a 2600 km wide viewing swath and it is capable of daily, global contiguous mapping. The Finnish Meteorological Institute and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center have developed a surface ultraviolet irradiance algorithm for OMI that produces noontime surface spectral UV irradiance estimates at four wavelengths, noontime erythemal dose rate (UV index), and the erythemal daily dose. The overpass erythemal daily doses derived from OMI data were compared with the daily doses calculated from the ground-based spectral UV measurements from 18 reference instruments. Two alternative methods for the OMI UV algorithm cloud correction were compared: the plane-parallel cloud model method and the method based on Lambertian equivalent reflectivity. The validation results for the two methods showed some differences, but the results do not imply that one method is categorically superior to the other. For flat, snow-free regions with modest loadings of absorbing aerosols or trace gases, the OMI-derived daily erythemal doses have a median overestimation of 0-10%, and some 60 to 80% of the doses are within ±20% from the ground reference. For sites significantly affected by absorbing aerosols or trace gases one expects, and observes, bigger positive bias up to 50%. For high-latitude sites the satellite-derived doses are occasionally up to 50% too small because of unrealistically small climatological surface albedo.
[1] Long-term monthly mean UV index values for Canada and the United States were calculated using information from two sources: from noon erythemal UV estimated from Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) total ozone and reflectivity data and from UV index values derived from observations of global solar radiation, total ozone, dew point, and snow cover. The results are presented as monthly maps of mean noon UV index values. Mean UV index values in summer range from 1.5 in the Arctic to 11.5 over southern Texas. Both climatologies were validated against spectral UV irradiance measurements made by Brewer spectrophotometers. With snow on the ground the TOMSbased data underestimate UV by up to 60% with respect to Brewer measurements and UV derived from global solar radiation and other parameters. In summer, TOMS UV index climatology values are from 10 to 30% higher than those derived from global solar radiation and other parameters. The difference is probably related to aerosol absorption and pollution effects in the lower troposphere that are not currently detected from space. For 21 of 28 midlatitude Brewer sites, long-term mean summer UV measured values and UV derived from global solar radiation and other parameters agree to within +5 to À7%. The remaining seven sites are located in ''clean'' environments where TOMS estimates agree with Brewer measurements while UV derived from global solar radiation and other parameters is 10-13% lower. Brewer data also demonstrate that clean and ''typical'' sites can be as little as 70-120 km apart.
Abstract. During recent years, methods have been developed for estimating UV irradiance reaching the Earth's surface using satellite-measured backscattered UV radiances. The NASA-developed method is based on radiative transfer calculations and satellite measurements of parameters affecting UV radiation: extraterrestrial solar irradiance, atmospheric ozone, cloud reflectivity, aerosol amounts, and ground albedo. In this work a comparison is made between daily UV erythemal doses estimated from Nimbus-7/TOMS measurements (from 1991 to May 1993) and those calculated from ground-based spectroradiometer data. Three stations operated by the National Science Foundation were chosen for this comparison: Ushuaia, Argentina (for 573 days), Palmer, Antarctica (for 450 days), and San Diego, California, (for 149 days). These stations were selected to illustrate the differences between ground-based measurements using the same type of instrument, SUV-100 double monochromator spectroradiometers, and satellite When the reflectivity at all three sites is low (no snow), the TOMS irradiance estimate is larger than the SUV-100 measurements consistent with previously analyzed Brewer data at Toronto. The effects of local fog or clouds smaller than the satellite field of view and undetected UV-absorbing aerosols near the ground are discussed. In addition to uncertainties in radiometric calibrations of the spectrometers, none of the SUV-100 data are corrected for deviations of diffuser-transmittance from true cosine response. IntroductionChanges in the Earth's atmosphere caused by anthropogenic and natural pollutants has led to the well-documented decline in ozone and the corresponding small increase in UV irradiance at the Earth's surface at higher latitudes greater than about 40 ø [Herman et al., 1996]. These increases can affect the human health, crop yields, ocean productivity, and materials aging.In addition to the satellite estimation of UV irradiance, there has been a long-term well-established network of ground-based instrumentation. The ground-based network has the advantage that it more accurately represents the local conditions of the region than the currently large-pixel (100 km) estimates from TOMS (total ozone mapping spectrometer). UV radiation at ground level is traditionally measured using a variety of ground-based instruments. However, the network of high-quality ground-based UV instruments is not dense enough for a monitoring of the global distribution of solar UV radiation and is almost completely lacking over the oceans. Because of this limitation, methods using satellite measurements of extraterrestrial solar radiation, atmospheric ozone, cloud reflectivity, aerosol amounts, and ground albedo combined with radiative transfer modeling are needed to estimate the daily global distribution of UV irradiance. It is important that the satellite estimates of surface UV irradiance are validated under the widest set of conditions.The longest continuous time series of satellite-based surface UV data has been calculated using th...
Abstract. The quality assurance of the two Brewer spectrophotometers of the Finnish Meteorological Institute is discussed in this paper. The complete data processing chain from raw signal to high quality spectra is presented. The quality assurance includes daily maintenance, laboratory characterizations, calculation of long-term spectral responsivity, data processing and quality assessment. The cosine correction of the measurements is based on a new method, and is included in the data processing software. The results showed that the actual cosine correction factor of the two Finnish Brewers can vary between 1.08-1.13 and 1.08-1.12, respectively, depending on the sky radiance distribution and wavelength. The temperature characterization showed a linear temperature dependence between the instruments' internal temperature and the photon counts per cycle, and a temperature correction was used for correcting the measurements. The long-term spectral responsivity was calculated using the time series of several lamps using two slightly different methods. The long-term spectral responsivity was scaled to the irradiance scale of the Helsinki University of Technology (HUT) for the whole of the measurement time -periods 1990-2006 and 1995-2006 for Sodankylä and Jokioinen, respectively. Both Brewers have participated in many international spectroradiometer comparisons, and have shown good stability. The differences between the Brewers and the portable reference spectroradiometer QASUME have been within 5% during
[1] A method for reconstruction of past UV radiation has been developed. The idea of the method is to use measurements of global radiation (300-3000 nm) for determining the influence of clouds on UV radiation. In order to transfer the information contained in the global radiation data into a cloud effect in the UV range, a so-called cloud modification table was developed, which is based on physical relationships determined through radiative transfer calculations. The method was given as input the measured global radiation and total ozone column, the total water vapor column from the ERA-40 data set, the surface albedo as estimated from snow depth, and the altitude of the location. Using this method, erythemally weighted UV irradiances were reconstructed back to the early 1980s at four stations in northern Europe: Bergen in Norway, Norrköping in Sweden, and Jokioinen and Sodankylä in Finland. The reconstructed daily UV doses are in good agreement with measurements. For the summer season, the systematic error was found to vary between 0% at Bergen and 4% at Jokioinen, and the correlation coefficient was 0.99 at all stations. The summer root-mean-square error was 5% at all stations except Jokioinen, where it was 9%. The method performs well also for spring and autumn, whereas for winter conditions of low Sun, a systematical underestimation was found. A large part of this underestimation was found to be due to the plane-parallel approximation used in the radiative transfer calculations. The time series of reconstructed UV exhibit a clear increase since the early 1980s at both Sodankylä (4.1%/decade; statistically significant) and Norrköping (3.3%/decade; not significant). At Jokioinen, a weak increase was found, while at Bergen there was no considerable overall change. At both Sodankylä and Norrköping, the increase in the reconstructed UV radiation was primarily driven by an increase in the global radiation, that is, by decreased cloudiness. The method is general in the sense that it can be applied also to other stations.
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