Measurements of solar ultra violet radiation on the Tibetan Plateau and comparisons with discrete ordinate method simulations

Measurements of both broadband and spectral UV radiation have been carried out at Lhasa (29°40′N, 91°08′E, 3648 m above sea level) on the Tibetan Plateau, using a moderate bandwidth filter instrument (NILUV) and a Fixed Imaging Compact Spectrometer (FICS). In this paper, the erythemal UV dose rates deduced from broadband measurements during the period from 1 July 1996 to 10 December 1997 are presented. The observed highest erythemal UV dose rate is 500 (or 458) mW/m² in July 1996 (or 1997), and the corresponding daily erythemal UV dose can reach up to 7.60 (or 7.00) kJ/m² and 9.18 (or 8.96) kJ/m², respectively, for the monthly mean and the monthly maximum. Comparisons with the UV levels at other locations at similar latitudes show that both the monthly mean and monthly maximum erythemal UV doses at Lhasa can be higher by a factor of 1.3–1.5 than those at San Diego (32°05′N, 117°1′W) in summer (from May to August), and exceed the corresponding values at Perth (32°0′S, 115°8′E) in the southern hemisphere summer (from November to February) by a factor of 1.2–1.4. Comparisons of both the broadband measurements and spectral measurements with the outputs of a discrete ordinate method (DOM) radiative transfer model have also been conducted. The results from the comparisons of broadband measurements with model outputs show that a 15, 11 and 10% agreement may be achieved around solar noon (with solar zenith angle smaller than 60°), respectively, for global irradiances in the 305, 320 and 340 mm channels, whilst the corresponding agreements are about 8 and 4% for the erythemal UV dose rate and the 340–305 nm ratio, respectively. The comparisons of the measured spectral irradiance with model calculations indicate that large discrepancies may appear at wavelengths shorter than 310 nm and longer than 380 nm. However, a 10% agreement may be generally achieved in UVA for solar zenith angle lower than 55°C. The corresponding agreement is about 20 and 5%, respectively, for UVB and the erythemal UV dose rate.