UV Index monitoring in Europe.

The UV Index was established more than 20 years ago as a tool for sun protection and health care. Shortly after its introduction, UV Index monitoring started in several countries either by newly acquired instruments or by converting measurements from existing instruments into the UV Index. The number of stations and networks has increased over the years. Currently, 160 stations in 25 European countries deliver online values to the public via the Internet. In this paper an overview of these UV Index monitoring sites in Europe is given. The overview includes instruments as well as quality assurance and quality control procedures. Furthermore, some examples are given about how UV Index values are presented to the public. Through these efforts, 57% of the European population is supplied with high quality information, enabling them to adapt behaviour. Although health care, including skin cancer prevention, is cost-effective, a proportion of the European population still doesn't have access to UV Index information.

The action spectrum for vitamin D3: initial skin reaction and prolonged exposure.

Vitamin D3 photosynthesis in the skin is formulated as a set of reaction equations, including side-reactions to lumisterol, tachysterol and toxisterols, and the accompanying reverse reactions, isomerisation of previtamin D3 to vitamin D3 and photodegradation of vitamin D3. The solution of this set is given for the stationary irradiance spectrum. The effective action spectrum for the instantaneous vitamin D3 production changes shape as a function of exposure, and therefore, no single action spectrum can be used. We assessed the action spectrum for unexposed skin and for skin that has been exposed to 7.5 Standard Erythemal Doses (SED). We constructed two new estimates: (1) the RIVM action spectrum, based on absorption spectra, quantum yields and skin transmission spectra, and (2) the modified QUT action spectrum, which is adjusted for self-absorption and skin transmission. For previously unexposed skin, the modified QUT action spectrum gives a qualitatively similar, but larger estimate than the RIVM action spectrum. We have not been able to solve the lack of quantitative agreement between the vitamin D production estimates from the three action spectrum estimates (RIVM, modified QUT and CIE). All new action spectra have stronger emphasis on the short wavelengths than the CIE action spectrum. We showed that, for wavelengths larger than 300 nm, the bandwidth that was used in the experiment that formed the basis of the CIE action spectrum, gives a red-shift of about 1 nm. Generally, with the formation of previtamin D3, the return reaction to provitamin D3 limits the production of vitamin D3. After some exposure, the new action spectrum has negative values for the longer wavelengths in the UVB. For the RIVM action spectrum, this happens after 7.5 SED, for the modified QUT action spectrum already after 1.25 SED, and after 7.5 SED the net production rate is largely cancelled. Thus prolonged exposure of previously unexposed skin saturates vitamin D3 formation. For maximum vitamin D production after 1.25 SED, sunscreens should block wavelengths larger than 310 nm. Sunscreens that block only UVB could result in reduction in vitamin D production after prolonged exposure, or even a destruction of vitamin D that has just been formed.

Stability of the nine sky quality meters in the Dutch night sky brightness monitoring network.

In the context of monitoring abundance of artificial light at night, the year-to-year stability of Sky Quality Meters (SQMs) is investigated by analysing intercalibrations derived from two measurement campaigns that were held in 2011 and 2012. An intercalibration comprises a light sensitivity factor and an offset for each SQM. The campaigns were concerned with monitoring measurements, each lasting one month. Nine SQMs, together forming the Night Sky Brightness Monitoring network (MHN) in The Netherlands, were involved in both campaigns. The stability of the intercalibration of these instruments leads to a year-to-year uncertainty (standard deviation) of 5% in the measured median luminance occurring at the MHN monitoring locations. For the 10-percentiles and 90-percentiles, we find 8% and 4%, respectively. This means that, for urban and industrial areas, changes in the sky brightness larger than 5% become detectable. Rural and nature areas require an 8%-9% change of the median luminance to be detectable. The light sensitivety agrees within 8% for the whole group of SQMs.

Intercomparisons of nine sky brightness detectors.

Nine Sky Quality Meters (SQMs) have been intercompared during a night time measurement campaign held in the Netherlands in April 2011. Since then the nine SQMs have been distributed across The Netherlands and form the Dutch network for monitoring night sky brightness. The goal of the intercomparison was to infer mutual calibration factors and obtain insight into the variability of the SQMs under different meteorological situations. An ensemble average is built from the individual measurements and used as a reference to infer the mutual calibration factors. Data required additional synchronization prior to the calibration determination, because the effect of moving clouds combined with small misalignments emerges as time jitter in the measurements. Initial scatter of the individual instruments lies between ±14%. Individual night time sums range from -16% to +20%. Intercalibration reduces this to 0.5%, and -7% to +9%, respectively. During the campaign the smallest luminance measured was 0.657 ± 0.003 mcd/m(2) on 12 April, and the largest value was 5.94 ± 0.03 mcd/m(2) on 2 April. During both occurrences interfering circumstances like snow cover or moonlight were absent.

Variability of UV irradiance in Europe.

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.

Exposure to solar ultraviolet radiation in young Dutch children: assessment by means of a 6-week retrospective questionnaire.

We designed a 6-week retrospective questionnaire on sunlight exposure. Estimation of the short-term exposure to sunlight is important for observational human studies concerning the effects of ultraviolet radiation (UVR) on the human immune system and related resistance to infections. This questionnaire was given to the parents of 1672 1-year-old children in the Netherlands who participated in a birth cohort study. We evaluated the questionnaire and estimated the personal 6-week cumulative exposure to solar UVR. Only 910 questionnaires (54.4%) were filled out completely and consistently. This suggests that reporting data on children's outdoor exposure, even for the recent past, is often difficult. The data from these questionnaires indicated that the crude number of reported outdoor hours was enough to obtain a relative estimate of the individual exposure to ambient UVR, but that weighting for the effect of clothing was essential for the classification of the systemic UVR dosage received. Sunny weeks in the Netherlands in 1998, as were established by independent measurements of the levels of ambient UVR, vacations abroad, and sunburn, were associated with a comparatively high mean estimated exposure. These results support the suitability of the questionnaire for classifying the participants with respect to their short-term exposure to solar UVR.

Skin cancer risks avoided by the Montreal Protocol--worldwide modeling integrating coupled climate-chemistry models with a risk model for UV.

The assessment model for ultraviolet radiation and risk "AMOUR" is applied to output from two chemistry-climate models (CCMs). Results from the UK Chemistry and Aerosols CCM are used to quantify the worldwide skin cancer risk avoided by the Montreal Protocol and its amendments: by the year 2030, two million cases of skin cancer have been prevented yearly, which is 14% fewer skin cancer cases per year. In the "World Avoided," excess skin cancer incidence will continue to grow dramatically after 2030. Results from the CCM E39C-A are used to estimate skin cancer risk that had already been inevitably committed once ozone depletion was recognized: excess incidence will peak mid 21st century and then recover or even super-recover at the end of the century. When compared with a "No Depletion" scenario, with ozone undepleted and cloud characteristics as in the 1960s throughout, excess incidence (extra yearly cases skin cancer per million people) of the "Full Compliance with Montreal Protocol" scenario is in the ranges: New Zealand: 100-150, Congo: -10-0, Patagonia: 20-50, Western Europe: 30-40, China: 90-120, South-West USA: 80-110, Mediterranean: 90-100 and North-East Australia: 170-200. This is up to 4% of total local incidence in the Full Compliance scenario in the peak year.

Calculations of the human vitamin D exposure from UV spectral measurements at three European stations.

The health benefits of solar UVB and vitamin D in reducing the risk of cancer and several other diseases have been well documented in recent years. In this study, quality-checked spectral UV irradiance measurements from three European stations (Jokioinen, Finland; Bilthoven, The Netherlands; and Thessaloniki, Greece) are used and the vitamin D effective dose (VDED) is calculated. The maximum average daily VDED is measured during the second half of June and it is up to 250 times higher than the corresponding winter minimum value. At each site, a polynomial fit between the VDED and the erythemal dose rates is proposed. The average VDED rates at local noon exceed a detection threshold value for the cutaneous production of vitamin D at Thessaloniki and Bilthoven throughout the year. The proposed standard vitamin dose cannot be attained, even for skin types I-III and exposure time of 60 minutes around local noon, under physiological atmospheric conditions at Bilthoven and Jokioinen during 3 and 4 months respectively. The daily VDED values, using the CIE action spectrum, are higher from 2% and 8% during summer and winter respectively at all sites, compared with those derived by the action spectrum proposed by MacLaughlin et al. (Science, 1982, 216, 1001-1003). These differences are comparable with the uncertainty of spectral measurements.

Improving solar ultraviolet irradiance measurements by applying a temperature correction method for Teflon diffusers.

To establish trends in surface ultraviolet radiation levels, accurate and stable long-term measurements are required. The accuracy level of today's measurements has become high enough to notice even smaller effects that influence instrument sensitivity. Laboratory measurements of the sensitivity of the entrance optics have shown a decrease of as much as 0.07-0.1%/deg temperature increase. Since the entrance optics can heat to greater than 45 degrees C in Dutch summers, corrections are necessary. A method is developed to estimate the entrance optics temperatures from pyranometer measurements and meteorological data. The method enables us to correct historic data records for which temperature information is not available. The temperature retrieval method has an uncertainty of less than 2.5 degrees C, resulting in a 0.3% uncertainty in the correction to be performed. The temperature correction improves the agreement between modeled and measured doses and instrument intercomparison as performed within the Quality Assurance of Spectral Ultraviolet Measurements in Europe project. The retrieval method is easily transferable to other instruments.