Impact/Purpose:
Six locations across the continental United States will be used to evaluate the impacts of clouds and tropospheric air quality on surface UV irradiance measurements. These six sites are the re-established EPA UV Network and include Table Mountain near Boulder, CO, Rocky Mountain Research Station at Niwot Ridge, CO, Bondville, IL, Fort Peck, MT, Raleigh, NC, and Houston, TX. Our goals will be to evaluate UV-B irradiance from the six locations under a variety of atmospheric conditions.
Record Details:
Record Type:PROJECT(
ABSTRACT
)
Start Date:10/01/2006
Completion Date:09/30/2010
Keywords:
STRATOSPHERIC OZONE, TROPOSPHERIC OZONE, AIR QUALITY, AEROSOL OPTICAL DEPTH, CLOUD PROPERTIES, MULTI-FILTER ROTATING SHADOWBAND RADIOMETER, TSI SKY IMAGER, BREWER SPECTRORADIOMETER, ULTRAVIOLET, TUV RADIATIVE TRANSFER MODEL, DISORT,
Related Organizations:
Role
:OWNER
Organization Name
:COOPERATIVE INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Mailing Address
:Campus Box 17
Citation
:Boulder
State
:CO
Zip Code
:80309
Project Information:
Approach
:The specific goals include (1) developing and implementing QA/QC procedures on the UV measurements and ancillary data. Procedures include comparing solar irradiance from the Brewer spectrophotometer to measurements from other co-located instruments (i.e. UV broadband radiometers and UV filter radiometers). (2) An algorithm will be developed for determining ozone profiles from Brewer Umkehr measurements and inferring tropospheric ozone column. (3) Cloud and aerosol properties will be collected from a suite of co-located instruments as part of the SURFRAD Network within the Surface Radiation Research Branch (SRRB), Earth System Research Laboratory, NOAA, and the USDA UV monitoring program. (4) Using the diffuse to direct ratio from the UV-MFRSR combined with a UV radiative transfer code, the aerosol single scattering albedo will be estimated for clear-sky conditions at the six sites. (5) The atmospheric conditions will be characterized for total ozone, cloud properties, and atmospheric pollutants. (6) We will provide a comprehensive evaluation of the impact of solar zenith angle, total ozone, cloud cover, and air quality on the tropospheric UV-B transmission. The database provided by the Central UV Calibration Facility, the Surface Radiation and Research Branch of ESRL/NOAA, and the USDA UV Monitoring Program provides a unique and valuable data-set that will help identify the impacts of variable conditions of cloud cover and tropospheric air quality on UV irradiances.
Cost
:$299,988.00
Research Component
:Global Climate Change
Approach
:The specific goals include (1) developing and implementing QA/QC procedures on the UV measurements and ancillary data. Procedures include comparing solar irradiance from the Brewer spectrophotometer to measurements from other co-located instruments (i.e. UV broadband radiometers and UV filter radiometers). (2) An algorithm will be developed for determining ozone profiles from Brewer Umkehr measurements and inferring tropospheric ozone column. (3) Cloud and aerosol properties will be collected from a suite of co-located instruments as part of the SURFRAD Network within the Surface Radiation Research Branch (SRRB), Earth System Research Laboratory, NOAA, and the USDA UV monitoring program. (4) Using the diffuse to direct ratio from the UV-MFRSR combined with a UV radiative transfer code, the aerosol single scattering albedo will be estimated for clear-sky conditions at the six sites. (5) The atmospheric conditions will be characterized for total ozone, cloud properties, and atmospheric pollutants. (6) We will provide a comprehensive evaluation of the impact of solar zenith angle, total ozone, cloud cover, and air quality on the tropospheric UV-B transmission. The database provided by the Central UV Calibration Facility, the Surface Radiation and Research Branch of ESRL/NOAA, and the USDA UV Monitoring Program provides a unique and valuable data-set that will help identify the impacts of variable conditions of cloud cover and tropospheric air quality on UV irradiances.
Cost
:$299,988.00
Research Component
:Air Quality and Air Toxics
Project IDs:
ID Code
:R833224
Project type
:EPA Grant