Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net 1680-7367 1680-7375 8 1 2008 10.5194/acpd-8-957-2008 http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/8/957/2008/ http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/8/957/2008/acpd-8-957-2008.html http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/8/957/2008/acpd-8-957-2008.pdf 957 994 2008-01-21 Reconstruction of erythemal UV-levels for two stations in Austria: a comparison between alpine and urban regions H. E. Rieder F. Holawe S. Simic M. Blumthaler J. W. Krzyścin J. Wagner A. Schmalwieser P. Weihs Institute for Meteorology, University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences (BOKU), Vienna, Austria Institute for Geography and Regional Research, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria Division for Biomedical Physics, Innsbruck Medical University, Innsbruck, Austria Institute of Geophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland Division for Medical Physics and Biostatistics, Veterinary University Vienna, Vienna, Austria now at: Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland The aim of this study is the reconstruction of past UV-radiation doses for two stations in Austria, Hoher Sonnblick and Vienna, using a physical radiation transfer model. The method uses the modeled UV-radiation under clear-sky conditions, cloud modification factors and a correction factor as input variables. To identify the influence of temporal resolution of input data and modification factors, an ensemble of four different modelling approaches has been calculated, each with hourly or daily resolution. This is especially important because we found no other study describing the influence of the temporal resolution of input data on model performance. Following the results of the statistical analysis of the evaluation period the model with the highest temporal resolution has been chosen for the reconstruction of the UV-radiation doses. This model (HMC) uses modelled UV-radiation under clear sky conditions, a cloud modification factor, both with hourly resolution, and a monthly correction factor. A good agreement between modelled and measured values of erythemally effective irradiance was found at both stations. 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