Effects of ozone and aerosol on surface UV radiation variability

Abstract

Global (direct+diffuse) spectral ultraviolet (UV, 290–363nm) and total ozone measurements made on the roof of the Main Science Building, Yonsei University at Seoul (37.57°, 128.98°E) were analyzed to quantify the effects of ozone and aerosol on the variability of surface erythemal UV (EUV) irradiance. The measurements have been made with a Brewer Spectrophotometer MKIV (SCI-TEC#148) and a Dobson Ozone Spectrophotometer (Beck#123), respectively, during 2004–2008. The overall mean radiation amplification factor, RAF(AOD, SZA) [23,24] due to total ozone (O3) (hereafter O3 RAF) shows that 1% decrease in total ozone results in an increase of 1.18±0.02% in the EUV irradiance with the range of 0.67–1.74% depending on solar zenith angles (SZAs) (40–70°) and on aerosol optical depths (AODs) (<4.0), under both clear (cloud cover<25%) and all sky conditions. For the mean AOD, the O3 RAFs(SZA) for both sky conditions increased as SZA increased from 40° to 60°, and then decreased for higher SZA 70°, where the patterns are consistent with results of the previous studies [2,10]. A similar analysis of the RAF(O3, SZA) due to AOD (hereafter AOD RAF) under clear and all-sky conditions shows that on average, a 1% increase in AOD forces a decrease of 0.29±0.06% in the EUV irradiance with the maximum range 0.18–0.63% depending on SZAs and O3. Thus, overall sensitivity of UV to ozone (O3, RAF) was estimated to be about four times higher than to the aerosol (AOD RAF). At the mean O3, the AOD RAFs(SZA) for both skies appears to be almost independent of SZAs. It is shown that the O3 RAFs are nearly independent of the sky conditions, whereas the AOD RAFs depend distinctly on the sky conditions with the larger values for all skies. Under cloud free conditions, the overall mean ratio for measured-to-modeled O3, RAF(AOD, SZA) is 1.13, whereas the ratio for AOD RAF(O3, SZA) shows 0.82 in the EUV irradiance. Overall, the RAF measurements are corroborated by radiative transfer model calculations under clear-sky conditions.