[1] Several validation studies of surface UV irradiance based on the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) satellite data have shown a high correlation with ground-based measurements but a positive bias in many locations. The main part of the bias can be attributed to the boundary layer aerosol absorption that is not accounted for in the current satellite UV algorithms. To correct for this shortfall, a postcorrection procedure was applied, based on global climatological fields of aerosol absorption optical depth. These fields were obtained by using global aerosol optical depth and aerosol single scattering albedo data assembled by combining global aerosol model data and ground-based aerosol measurements from AERONET. The resulting improvements in the satellite-based surface UV irradiance were evaluated by comparing satellite and ground-based spectral irradiances at various European UV monitoring sites. The results generally showed a significantly reduced bias by 5 -20%, a lower variability, and an unchanged, high correlation coefficient.

The diurnal and annual variability of solar UV radiation in Europe is described for different latitudes, seasons and different biologic weighting functions. For the description of this variability under cloudless skies the widely used one-dimensional version of the radiative transfer model UVSPEC is used. We reconfirm that the major factor influencing the diurnal and annual variability of UV irradiance is solar elevation. While ozone is a strong absorber of UV radiation its effect is relatively constant when compared with the temporal variability of clouds. We show the significant role that clouds play in modifying the UV climate by analyzing erythemal irradiance measurements from 28 stations in Europe in summer. On average, the daily erythemal dose under cloudless skies varies between 2.2 kJ m(-2) at 70 degrees N and 5.2 kJ m(-2) at 35 degrees N, whereas these values are reduced to 1.5-4.5 kJ m(-2) if clouds are included. Thus clouds significantly reduce the monthly UV irradiation, with the smallest reductions, on average, at lower latitudes, which corresponds to the fact that it is often cloudless in the Mediterranean area in summer.

[1] This paper is based on a comparative study on ultraviolet radiation (UV) measurements and UV reconstruction models for eight sites in Europe. Reconstruction models include neural network techniques and radiative transfer modeling combined with empirical relationships. The models have been validated against quality-controlled ground-based measurements, 8 to 20 years, on time scales ranging from daily to yearly UV sums. The standard deviations in the ratios of modeled to measured daily sums vary between 10 and 15%. The yearly sums agree within a 5% range. Depending on the availability of ancillary measurements, reconstructions have been carried out to the early 1960s. A method has been set up to educe one best estimate of the historical UV levels that takes into account the long-term stability and underlying agreement of the models, and the agreement with actual UV measurements. Using this best estimate, the yearly sums of erythemally weighted UV irradiance showed a range of 300 kJ/m 2 at 67°N to 750 kJ/m 2 at 40°N. The year-to-year variability was lowest at 40°N with a relative variation of 4.3%; for central and northern European latitudes this year-to-year variation was 5.2 to 6.5%. With regard to the period 1980 to 2006, first-order trend lines range from 0.3 ± 0.1 to 0.6 ± 0.2% per year, approximately two thirds of which can be attributed to the diminishing of cloudiness and one third to ozone decline.Citation: den Outer, P. N

Abstract. Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) are efficient tools to derive solar UV radiation from measured meteorological parameters such as global radiation, aerosol optical depths and atmospheric column ozone. The ANN model has been tested with different combinations of data from the two sites Potsdam and Lindenberg, and used to reconstruct solar UV radiation at eight European sites by more than 100 years into the past. Special emphasis will be given to the discussion of small-scale characteristics of input data to the ANN model.

Abstract. The daily doses of the erythemally weighted UV radiation are reconstructed for three sites in Central Europe: Belsk-Poland (1966-2001, Hradec Kralove-Czech Republic (1964-2001, and Tõravere-Estonia (1967-2001 to discuss the UV climatology and the long-term changes of the UV-B radiation since the mid 1960s. Various reconstruction models are examined: a purely statistical model based on the Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines (MARS) methodology, and a hybrid model combining radiative transfer model calculations with empirical estimates of the cloud effects on the UV radiation. Modeled long-term variations of the surface UV doses appear to be in a reasonable agreement with the observed ones. A simple quality control procedure is proposed to check the homogeneity of the biometer and pyranometer data. The models are verified using the results of UV observations carried out at Belsk since 1976. MARS provides the best estimates of the UV doses, giving a mean difference between the modeled and observed monthly means equal to 0.6±2.5%. The basic findings are: similar climatological forcing by clouds for all considered stations (∼30% reduction in the surface UV), long-term variations in UV monthly doses having the same temporal pattern for all stations with extreme low monthly values (∼5% below overall mean level) at the end of the 1970s and extreme high monthly values (∼5% above overall mean level) in the mid 1990s, regional peculiarities in the cloud long-term forcing sometimes leading to extended periods with elevated UV doses, recent stabilization of the ozone induced UV long-term changes being a response to a trendless tendency of total ozone since the mid 1990s. In the case of the slowdown of the total ozone trend over Northern Hemisphere mid-latitudes it seems that clouds will appear as the most important modulator of the UV radiation both in long-and short-time scales over next decades.