The Antarctic ozone hole is reported to develop annually in Austral spring since the late 1970s and results in increasing irradiances of solar UV-B radiation on the earth’s surface and in the aquatic environment (Farman et al. 1985, Häder et al. 1998). Exposure of organisms to enhanced UV-B radiation results in multiple damage, e.g. dimerisation of DNA molecules, formation of reactive oxygen sp...

Radiochromic film is tested for its broad-band response to ultraviolet (UV) B (290-320 nm) and A (320 nm400 nm), visible and infrared radiation produced by a solar simulator and examined for dosimetry in ultraviolet radiation. Results show that MD-55-2 radiochromic film in solar and fluorescent light sources responds almost exclusively to broad-band UVA radiation with negligible colouration fro...

The effect of solar radiation on a natural bacterial population from the Chesapeake Bay was evaluated from measured changes in numbers of organisms engaged in amino acid uptake. From July through May, freshly collected water samples were exposed in quartz containers to 3.5 h of total sunlight both with and without UV-absorbing filters. Water samples were subsequently incubated with tritiated am...

*Correspondence: Annika Seppälä, Earth Observation, Finnish Meteorological Institute, Erik Palmenin Aukio 1, FI-00560 Helsinki, Finland e-mail: [email protected] Variation in solar irradiance is considered an important factor in natural climate forcing. Variations in the solar UV in particular are now regarded as a major source of decadal variability in the stratosphere, influencing surface...

The installation of roofing materials with increased solar reflectance (i.e., "cool roofs") can mitigate the urban heat island effect and reduce energy use. In addition, meteorological changes, along with the possibility of enhanced UV reflection from these surfaces, can have complex impacts on ozone and PM2.5 concentrations. We aim to evaluate the air-quality impacts of widespread cool-roof in...

Environmental Engineering Science, W. M. Keck Laboratories, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 The design and testing of a solar-powered fiber-optic cable reactor prototype for the photocatalytic destruction of organic pollutants is presented. A concentrating collector directs sunlight into a fiber-optic cable which transmits light to a Ti02 photocatalyst immobilized on the ...

The latest solar cycle minimum sometime around 2009 showed unusually low solar activity and suggested the possibility of a grand solar minimum in the near future [1]. This event caused much attention to be focused on studies regarding solar influence on the Earth's climate. The recent review by Gray et al. [2] classified solar forcing on the Earth's climate to be of four types: galactic cosmic ...

In the space experiment "Molecular adaptation strategies of microorganisms to different space and planetary UV climate conditions" (ADAPT), bacterial endospores of the highly UV-resistant Bacillus subtilis strain MW01 were exposed to low-Earth orbit (LEO) and simulated martian surface conditions for 559 days on board the European Space Agency's exposure facility EXPOSE-E, mounted outside the In...

A recent World Meteorological Organisation report discussed the importance of continued study of the effect of clouds on the solar UV radiation reaching the earths surface. The report mentions that the use of all-sky imagery offers the potential to understand and quantify cloud effects more accurately. There are an increasing number of studies investigating the enhancement of surface solar, UV ...

With increasing altitude, solar UV-B radiation is enhanced. Based on the phenomenon of male-biased sex ratio of Populus cathayana Rehder in high altitude alpine area, we hypothesized that males have a faster and more sophisticated responsive mechanism to high UV-B radiation than that of females. Our previous studies have shown sexually different responses to high UV-B radiation were existed in ...