MONITORING SUMMER SOLAR ULTRAVIOLET (UV) RADIATION ON THE GROUND LEVEL OVER ARDABIL-SAREIN, NW IRAN

Abstract. The UV radiation level at the Earth’s surface is generally affected by several factors such as time, geographic location, and climate. The first observations of solar UV radiation ever made in NW Iran, obtained in June 2019 are reported in this work. The analysis of hourly values of UV irradiances measured in the study area reveals significant diurnal variation during daylight hours, with lower values in the morning and afternoon and higher around noon. Mean hourly UV (A+B) ranged from 2755 to 10434 µW/cm² with an average value being about 7960 µW/cm². Mean hourly UV (C) ranged from 40 to 91 µW/cm² with an average value being about 76 µW/cm². The results of a short but intense measurement campaign in Ardabil-Sarein indicate the trends for geographical latitude, longitude, and altitude from surface UV measurements. The UV intensity is associated with geographical longitude (r²= 0.15 for UV (A+B); r²= 0.13 for UV (C)). Furthermore, UV intensity varies with the local latitude in the study area. There is a strong linear relationship between average UV and altitude and a trend of rising UV with increasing altitude is obtained. A decrease in UV radiation with increasing solar zenith (°) was observed. However, the correlation between UV radiation and solar azimuth (°) was not significant. Understanding the factors influencing near-surface UV radiation through systematic ground-based UV will help determine whether long-term changes occur as a result of changes in cloud cover or climate change, and how specific it means to identifying the causes.