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| Effect of The Atmosphere on UVB Radiation Reaching The Earth's Surface: Dependence on Solar Zenith Angle |
| Mahmoud el_Nouby ADAM |
| Quality Assurance Unit (ALI), King Saud University, Saudi Arabia |
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Abstract The atmosphere protects humans, plants, animals, and microorganisms from damaging doses of ultraviolet-B (UVB) solar radiation (280-320 nm) because it modifies the UVB reaching the Earth’s surface. This modification is a function of the solar radiation’s path length through the atmosphere and the amount of each attenuator along the path length. The path length is determined by solar zenith angle (SZA). The present work explains the dependence of hemispherical transmittance of UVB on SZA. The database used consists of five years of hourly UVB and global solar radiation measurements. From 2001 to 2005, the South Valley University (SVU) meteorological research station (26.20°N, 32.75°E) carried out these measurements on a horizontal surface. In addition, the corresponding extraterrestrial UVB (UVBext) and broadband solar radiation (Gext) were estimated. Consequently, the hemispherical transmittance of UVB (KtUVB) and the hemispherical transmittance of global solar radiation (Kt) were estimated. Furthermore, the UVB redaction due to the atmosphere was evaluated. An analysis of the dependence between KtUVB and SZA at different ranges of Kt was performed. A functional dependence between KtUVB and SZA (KtUVB=-a(SZA)+b) for very narrow Kt-ranges (width of ranges was 0.01) was developed. The results are discussed, and the sensitivity of ΔKtUVB to ΔSZA for very narrow Kt-ranges was studied. It was found that the sensitivity of ΔKtUVB to ΔSZA slightly increases with increased Kt, which means KtUVB is sensitive to SZA as Kt increases. The maximum correlation (R) between KtUVB and SZA was equal to -0.83 for Kt= 0.76.
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Received: 28 December 2010
Accepted: 25 March 2011
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