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Project information
UltraViolet Irradiance Variability in Arctic (U-VIVA)
Call year: 2018
Status: active
IADC_id: 118
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It is well known that besides the stratospheric ozone, the solar UV irradiance reaching the ground depends strongly on various environmental factors such as the surface reflectance, clouds, aerosols etc. that makes the variability of the UV irradiances over different regions of the Earth to have specific features. Taking into account the importance of UV radiation for atmospheric photochemistry and biosphere it is considered that the knowledge about the variations of this spectral component is extremely significant. The Arctic is a crucial region for the planet climate so that the study of UV irradiance variability at Svalbard is considered to be a substantial task. This is the main aim of the present project, which is followed by performing a long-term monitoring through diverse instruments. The observations started in 2008 with the UV radiometer UV-RAD, developed at CNR-ISAC on the basis of narrow-band filters. The device measures the UV irradiance at seven channels each of them having around 1 nm full width at half maximum that allows to reconstruct the solar UV spectrum (290-400 nm) with 1 nm resolution, evaluation of the erythemally weighted solar radiation (UVE) and retrieval of the total ozone amount. From 2017 the Brewer #050 operating at Ny-Ålesund was passed under the responsibility of CNR-ISAC team and was included in the observations. This is a very precise spectrophotometer that gives the solar UV spectrum with resolution of 0.5 nm and provides the solar UV spectrum between 295 and 363 nm with a step of 0.5 nm, UVE and ozone column. In addition, the ozone profiles can be determined through Umkehr effect at the time of sunrises and sunsets. The time resolution of measurements performed by Brewer spectrophotometer cannot be reduced below 30 min, when all above parameters should be registered. In this context, the Brewer data can be used to control the UV-RAD calibration constant quite frequently and combining both devices, the temporal frequency of the observations can be enhanced reaching a step of 5 min that is important for studding the short-term variations, which are typical for the Arctic. The results of UV-RAD is planned to be compared with those provided by other devices operating at Ny-Ålesund that will give more reliable picture of the studied problems.rnIt is expected that the present monitoring activity will be able to outline: (i) the impact of the specific Svalbard environment, characterised by various snow and ice covered surfaces, free water areas and mountains on the UV irradiance; (ii) influence of the Arctic cloud cover features on the UV radiation; (iii) how UV irradiance depends on the atmospheric dynamics, which has particular characteristics in the Arctic atmosphere, (iv) the variations in total ozone in the north polar region and (v) the extent of Arctic ozone impact on the ozone at lower latitudes. It is expected that clarifying these issues, we will understand better the variability features of the ground UV irradiance at Svalbard and their relationships with the local and larger-areas climate characteristics.
National/International Cooperation:
The project activity assumes cooperation with Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU) and Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI).
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