Comparison of Ground-Based and Satellite-Derived Solar UV Index Levels at Six South African Sites

Jean-Maurice Cadet, Hassan Bencherif, Thierry Portafaix, Kévin Lamy, Katlego Ncongwane, Gerrie J. R. Coetzee and Caradee Y. Wright
Additional contact information
Jean-Maurice Cadet: LACy, Laboratoire de l’Atmosphère et des Cyclones (UMR 8105 CNRS, Université de La Réunion, Météo-France), Saint-Denis de La Réunion 97744, France
Hassan Bencherif: LACy, Laboratoire de l’Atmosphère et des Cyclones (UMR 8105 CNRS, Université de La Réunion, Météo-France), Saint-Denis de La Réunion 97744, France
Thierry Portafaix: LACy, Laboratoire de l’Atmosphère et des Cyclones (UMR 8105 CNRS, Université de La Réunion, Météo-France), Saint-Denis de La Réunion 97744, France
Kévin Lamy: LACy, Laboratoire de l’Atmosphère et des Cyclones (UMR 8105 CNRS, Université de La Réunion, Météo-France), Saint-Denis de La Réunion 97744, France
Katlego Ncongwane: South African Weather Service, Private Bag X097, Pretoria 0001, South Africa
Gerrie J. R. Coetzee: South African Weather Service, Private Bag X097, Pretoria 0001, South Africa
Caradee Y. Wright: Environment and Health Research Unit, South African Medical Research Council, Pretoria 0001, South Africa

IJERPH, 2017, vol. 14, issue 11, 1-15

Abstract: South Africa has been measuring the ground-based solar UV index for more than two decades at six sites to raise awareness about the impacts of the solar UV index on human health. This paper is an exploratory study based on comparison with satellite UV index measurements from the OMI/AURA experiment. Relative UV index differences between ground-based and satellite-derived data ranged from 0 to 45% depending on the site and year. Most of time, these differences appear in winter. Some ground-based stations’ data had closer agreement with satellite-derived data. While the ground-based instruments are not intended for long-term trend analysis, they provide UV index information for public awareness instead, with some weak signs suggesting such long-term trends may exist in the ground-based data. The annual cycle, altitude, and latitude effects clearly appear in the UV index data measured in South Africa. This variability must be taken into account for the development of an excess solar UV exposure prevention strategy.

Keywords: solar ultraviolet radiation; UV index; ground-based measurements; satellite-derived data; OMI/AURA; South Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/11/1384/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/11/1384/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:14:y:2017:i:11:p:1384-:d:118851

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().