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Detailed Reference Information
Luccini et al. 2006
Luccini, E., Cede, A., Piacentini, R., Villanueva, C. and Canziani, P. (2006). Ultraviolet climatology over Argentina. Journal of Geophysical Research 111: doi: 10.1029/2005JD006580. issn: 0148-0227.

Satellite-derived climatologies of UV index (UVI) and erythemal daily dose were determined for Argentina at a geographical resolution of 0.5¿ latitude by 0.5¿ longitude. Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer climatology of key input parameters was used to calculate the clear-sky ground-level solar UV irradiance. NASA Surface meteorology and Solar Energy cloud cover data were used to determine the UV attenuation by clouds. Two cases were tested: (1) monthly averages of total cloud cover and (2) monthly averages for three ranges of cloud cover percentage (0--10%, 10--70%, and 70--100%). Case 2, with smaller biases, was selected. Measured erythemal irradiance at seven stations of the Argentine Ultraviolet Monitoring Network was used to validate the satellite-derived climatologies, as well as to estimate aerosol parameters, surface albedo corrections, and UV cloud transmittance for the calculations. Annual average biases of the monthly mean satellite-derived UVI and erythemal daily dose with respect to the ground measurements are mostly within ¿10%. The strong longitudinal gradient of UV levels toward the Andes Mountains is emphasized. Very high UVI and erythemal daily dose values are registered in the northwestern tropical high-elevation Andean plateau, with extreme monthly means above 18 and 10 kJ/m2 respectively, in December--January. Even northern low-elevation regions show averages over 12 and 7 kJ/m2, respectively. On average, clouds attenuate the clear-sky erythemal irradiance by less than 20% for most of the continental region during all months. UV levels are considerably higher than those for equivalent regions in the Northern Hemisphere.

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Abstract

Keywords
Atmospheric Composition and Structure, Radiation, transmission and scattering, Atmospheric Processes, Climatology (1616, 1620, 3305, 4215, 8408), Atmospheric Processes, Radiative processes, Biogeosciences, Modeling
Journal
Journal of Geophysical Research
http://www.agu.org/journals/jb/
Publisher
American Geophysical Union
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