Twenty-five years of spectral UV-B measurements over Canada, Europe and Japan: Trends and effects from changes in ozone, aerosols, clouds, and surface reflectivity
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Authors
Fountoulakis, Ilias
Zerefos, Christos S.
Bais, Alkiviadis F.
Kapsomenakis, John
Koukouli, Maria-Elissavet
Ohkawara, Nozomu
Fioletov, Vitali
De Backer, Hugo
Lakkala, Kaisa
Karppinen, Tomi
Webb, Ann R.
Discipline
Physical sciences
Subject
Solar UV radiation
Total ozone
Clouds
Surface reflectivity
UV-B
Audience
Scientific
Date
2018-11-01Publisher
Elsevier
Metadata
Show full item recordDescription
Spectral UV records of solar irradiance at stations over Europe, Canada, and Japan were
used to study long-term trends at 307.5 nm for a 25-year period, from 1992 to
2016. Ground-based measurements of total ozone, as well as satellite measurements of
the Aerosol Index, the Total Cloud Cover and the surface reflectivity were also used in order
to attribute the estimated changes of the UV to the corresponding changes of these factors.
The present study shows that over the Northern Hemisphere, the long-term changes in
UV-B radiation reaching the Earth’s surface vary significantly over different locations, and
that the main drivers of these variations are changes in aerosols and total ozone. At high
latitudes, part of the observed changes may also be attributed to changes in the surface
reflectivity. Over Japan, the UV-B irradiance at 307.5 nm has increased significantly by
3%/decade during the past 25 years, possibly due to the corresponding significant
decrease of its absorption by aerosols. It was found that the greatest part of this increase
took place before the mid-2000s. The only European station, over which UV radiation
increases significantly, is that of Thessaloniki, Greece. Analysis of the clear-sky irradiance
for the particular station shows increasing irradiance at 307.5 nm by 3.5%/decade during
the entire period of study, with an increasing rate of change during the last decade,
possibly again due to the decreasing absorption by aerosols.
Citation
Fountoulakis, Ilias; Zerefos, Christos S.; Bais, Alkiviadis F.; Kapsomenakis, John; Koukouli, Maria-Elissavet; Ohkawara, Nozomu; Fioletov, Vitali; De Backer, Hugo; Lakkala, Kaisa; Karppinen, Tomi; Webb, Ann R. (2018-11-01). Twenty-five years of spectral UV-B measurements over Canada, Europe and Japan: Trends and effects from changes in ozone, aerosols, clouds, and surface reflectivity. (Elsevier, Ed.), Comptes Rendus Geoscience, Vol. 350 (2018), 393-402, Elsevier.
Identifiers
Type
Article
Peer-Review
Yes
Language
eng