UV measurements at Mauna Loa: July 1995 to July 1996

Abstract

A UV spectroradiometer was installed at Mauna Loa Observatory (MLO), Hawaii, in July 1995. This instrument, based on a commercially available double monochromator, uses a diffuser mounted as a horizontal receptor inside a quartz dome and views the whole sky. The instrument scans over the 290-450 nm spectral range with a band pass of about 1 nm for each 5° of solar zenith angle (SZA). The UV irradiances measured at MLO are much more intense than at low-altitude midlatitude locations. For observations at SZA 45° the erythemally weighted UV irradiances can exceed 21 μW cm-2, which is approximately 15-20% greater than that seen at Lauder, New Zealand, for similar ozone amounts. The difference is primarily due to the higher altitude at MLO (3.4 km). For overhead Sun conditions at MLO the largest value of erythemal UV was 51.3 ± 3.1 μW cm-2, which to our knowledge is the highest recorded anywhere at the Earth's surface. UV irradiance is strongly correlated (inversely) with Dobson spectrophotometer total ozone measurements at MLO, with higher correlations at shorter wavelengths. The radiative amplification factor (RAF) for erythema at MLO is about 1.33 ± 0.2 at SZA 45°.