Recently, a method has been proposed to estimate ultraviolet (UV) spectral irradiances at the Earth's surface, from satellite-based measurements of ozone and cloud reflectivity. Here, we extend this method to the determination of spectral actinic fluxes needed for the calculation of photodissociation rate coefficients. It is shown that the modification of actinic flux by clouds is closely approximated by the cloud reduction factor applicable to the irradiance, if considering averages over area or time instead of instantaneous point data. The conversion of irradiance estimates into actinic flux estimates introduces additional errors, but for most practical situations these fall below 10 to 20% in the UV spectral region, where the relevant photolytic reactions have their maximum sensitivity. Based on these results, large satellite-derived data sets (e.g., ozone column and cloud reflectivity from the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer, TOMS) can be utilized to estimate near-surface photolysis rate coefficients on a global scale. ¿ 1998 American Geophysical Union