Australian radiation laboratory (ARL) solar-UVR measurement network: calibation and results

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Abstract
The Australian Radiation Laboratory (ARL) has been involved for many years in the measurement of solar ultraviolet radiation (UVR) using spectroradiometers and a network of broadband detectors at 20 sites in Australia and Antarctica. Measurement sites range from polar to tropical, with vastly different weather conditions and as a result there are many difficulties associated with maintenance of the network to ensure accurate and reliable data collection. Calibration procedures for the various detector systems involve simultaneous spectral measurements using a portable spectroradiometer incorporating a double monochromator, calibrated against 1000 watt standard lamps traceable to the CSIRO National Measurement Laboratory. The spectroradiometer was also checked when ARL participated in an international intercomparison of spectroradiometers at Lauder, NZ in February 1993 and a further intercomparison takes place in Germany during 1994. Detector-datalogger systems are intercompared at the Yallambie site for a number of months before installation at another site. As an additional check on the calibrations, computer models of solar UVR at the earth's surface for days with clear sky and known ozone are compared with the UV radiometer measurements. This paper details many of the procedures and difficulties and presents some measurement results. Network data are used to determine the ultraviolet radiation (UVR) levels to which the Australian population is exposed, in educating the public with presentation of the daily UVB on the news/weather reports in the capital cities each evening, as input for epidemiological studies of skin cancer rates and for personal dosimetry studies using polysulphone film.

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