A 5-year climatology of the solar erythemal ultraviolet in Athens, Greece

Observations of solar ultraviolet (UV) irradiance in Athens for the period 1993-1997 employing the Yankee Environmental Systems (YES) pyranometer (model UVB-1) are analysed to provide a climatological description of the erythemally active UV component in this urban Mediterranean environment. The role of cloud cover and the ozone column in the determination of the UV climate are estimated by a comparison of the record of UV irradiance with daily observations of total ozone at the University of Athens and of total solar radiation at the National Observatory of Athens. During the warmer months, June to September, there appears to be a substantial reduction of solar UV by atmospheric components other than ozone and clouds, a conclusion that is supported by comparing the observations with the predictions of radiative transfer models and with UV observations in a rural southern hemisphere environment reported by McKenzie et al. (1991). Copyright (C) 2000 Royal Meteorological Society.