A modeling approach to determine how much UV radiation is available across the UK and Ireland for health risk and benefit studies

Abstract

A detailed map of the available UV across the UK from 2003 to 2012 is provided. A suite of data derived from climatologies and satellite observations are used to calculate spectral UV irradiance and related weighted doses (erythema, DNA damage, vitamin D). The result is a well-validated tool that has two advantages: (i) the output is simulated spectral UV irradiance that can be weighted with any action spectrum for use in any research studies that require ambient UV data, (ii) reliance on instruments with planned operational lives of at least several years that ensures data and method homogeneity for extension to future studies. The model-derived doses are satisfactory validated against spectral ground-based measurements at two sites. According to the calculated climatology, the southern part of the UK receives 1.5-2 times more UV than the north during spring, summer and autumn. During wintertime, the UV doses in the far north are an order of magnitude lower than southern values. Even for the same latitude, regional variations of cloudiness result in doses at coastal sites being up to 25% higher than inland areas.

Seasonal Changes in Vitamin D-Effective UVB Availability in Europe and Associations with Population Serum 25-Hydroxyvitamin D

“…The present work used UV dose data generated from a UV irradiance model also implemented within the ODIN project. Full details of this model have been presented elsewhere [ 9 ], but in brief, the ambient UV irradiance on a 1° × 1° degree latitude/longitude grid at the above mentioned countries/regions (see Table 1 for coordinates used) were generated using the UVSPEC radiative transfer model together [ 10 ] with inputs of local cloud, ozone, and aerosol, plus topography at a temporal resolution of 15 min for a period of 10 years (2003–2012 period). Data on these atmospheric and geophysical parameters are required for the calculation of UV irradiance at the ground.…”

Is Sunlight Exposure Enough to Avoid Wintertime Vitamin D Deficiency in United Kingdom Population Groups?

“…In addition, the city location reduces street-level UVR due to buildings blocking radiation from both sun and sky [25], while the ambient UVR comes from monitoring instruments with a full hemispherical field of view. Our long-term monitoring of UVR allowed sun exposure to be put in context of both the actual solar radiation available during the study days and the typical exposure that might have resulted from the same behaviour in average or climatological conditions or at different locations (from detailed climatological modelling of the region validated against the measurements) [11]. …”

“…For this work, we considered a 25(OH)D concentration <25 nmol/L as deficient (following SACN, [4]) and <50 nmol/L as insufficient (following the IOM and EFSA, [9,10]). Using the same definitions, data modelling research reveals that it is theoretically possible to avoid vitamin D deficiency year-round in the UK without incurring skin erythema (a proxy for heightened risk of skin cancer) at least for the white Caucasian population [11,12]. At middle to high latitudes, a seasonal cycle in circulating 25(OH)D was observed, lagging slightly behind the seasonal cycle in solar elevation [13]; consequently, avoiding deficiency throughout winter required higher levels of 25(OH)D to be attained by the end of summer.…”

Climatological aspects of the increase of the skin cancer (melanoma) incidence rate in Europe

“…The Bentham spectroradiometer DM-150 is used in Reading. The instrument is regularly calibrated against a set of 200 W lamps (Kazantzidis et al, 2015). Global irradiance spectra are quality-checked against the shicRIVM algorithm (Slaper et al, 1995).…”