Search

The response of the ozone column across Europe to the extreme 2020 Arctic ozone depletion was examined by analyzing ground-based observations at 38 European stations. The ozone decrease at the northernmost site, Ny-Ålesund (79°N) was about 43% with respect to a climatology of more than 30 years. The magnitude of the decrease declined by about 0.7% deg−1 moving south to reach nearly 15% at 40°N. In addition, it was found that the variations of the ozone column at each of the selected stations in March-May were similar to those observed at Ny-Ålesund but with a delay increasing to about 20 days at mid-latitudes with a gradient of approximately 0.5 days deg−1. The distributions of reconstructed ozone column anomalies over a sector covering a large European area show decreasing ozone that started from the north at the beginning of April 2020 and spread south. Such behavior was shown to be similar to that observed after the Arctic ozone depletion in 2011. Stratospheric dynamical patterns in March–May 2011 and during 2020 suggested that the migration of ozone-poor air masses from polar areas to the south after the vortex breakup caused the observed ozone responses. A brief survey of the ozone mass mixing ratios at three stratospheric levels showed the exceptional strength of the 2020 episode. Despite the stronger and longer-lasting Arctic ozone loss in 2020, the analysis in this work indicates a similar ozone response at latitudes below 50°N to both 2011 and 2020 phenomena. An Unprecedented Arctic Ozone Depletion Event During Spring 2020 and Its Impacts Across Europe

Starting in 1969 and comprising three launches a week, the Uccle (Brussels, Belgium) ozonesonde dataset is one of longest and densest in the world. Moreover, as the only major change was the switch from Brewer-Mast (BM) to electrochemical concentration cell (ECC) ozonesonde types in 1997 (when the emissions of ozone-depleting substances peaked), the Uccle time series is very homogenous. In this paper, we briefly describe the efforts that were undertaken during the first 3 decades of the 50 years of ozonesonde observations to guarantee the homogeneity between ascent and descent profiles, under changing environmental conditions (e.g. SO2), and between the different ozonesonde types. This paper focuses on the 50-year-long Uccle ozonesonde dataset and aims to demonstrate its past, present, and future relevance to ozone research in two application areas: (i) the assessment of the temporal evolution of ozone from the surface to the (middle) stratosphere, and (ii) as the backbone for validation and stability analysis of both stratospheric and tropospheric satellite ozone retrievals. Using the Long-term Ozone Trends and Uncertainties in the Stratosphere (LOTUS) multiple linear regression model (SPARC/IO3C/GAW, 2019), we found that the stratospheric ozone concentrations at Uccle have declined at a significant rate of around 2 % per decade since 1969, which is also rather consistent over the different stratospheric levels. This overall decrease can mainly be assigned to the 1969–1996 period with a rather consistent rate of decrease of around −4 % per decade. Since 2000, a recovery of between +1 % per decade and +3 % per decade of the stratospheric ozone levels above Uccle has been observed, although it is not significant and is not seen for the upper stratospheric levels measured by ozonesondes. Throughout the entire free troposphere, a very consistent increase in the ozone concentrations of 2 % per decade to 3 % per decade has been measured since both 1969 and 1995, with the trend since 1995 being in almost perfect agreement with the trends derived from the In-service Aircraft for a Global Observing System (IAGOS) ascent/descent profiles at Frankfurt. As the number of tropopause folding events in the Uccle time series has increased significantly over time, increased stratosphere-to-troposphere transport of recovering stratospheric ozone might partly explain these increasing tropospheric ozone concentrations, despite the levelling-off of (tropospheric) ozone precursor emissions and notwithstanding the continued increase in mean surface ozone concentrations. Furthermore, we illustrate the crucial role of ozonesonde measurements for the validation of satellite ozone profile retrievals. With the operational validation of the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment-2 (GOME-2), we show how the Uccle dataset can be used to evaluate the performance of a degradation correction for the MetOp-A/GOME-2 UV (ultraviolet) sensors. In another example, we illustrate that the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) overpass ozone profiles in the stratosphere agree within ±5 % with the Uccle ozone profiles between 10 and 70 hPa. Another instrument on the same Aura satellite platform, the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES), is generally positively biased with respect to the Uccle ozonesondes in the troposphere by up to ∼ 10 ppbv, corresponding to relative differences of up to ∼ 15 %. Using the Uccle ozonesonde time series as a reference, we also demonstrate that the temporal stability of those last two satellite retrievals is excellent.

Starting in 1969, and with three launches a week, the Uccle (Brussels, Belgium) ozonesonde dataset is one of longest and densest of the world. Moreover, as the only major change was the switch from Brewer-Mast to Electrochemical Concentration Cell (ECC) ozonesonde types in 1997 (when the emissions of ozone depleting substances peaked), the Uccle time series is very homogenous. In this paper, we briefly describe which efforts have been taken during the first three decades of the 50 years of ozonesonde observations to guarantee the homogeneity between ascent and descent profiles, under changing environmental conditions (e.g. SO2), and between the different ozonesonde types. This paper focuses on the 50 years long Uccle ozonesonde dataset and aims to demonstrate its past, present and future relevance to ozone research in two application areas: (i) the assessment of the temporal evolution of ozone from the surface to the (middle) stratosphere, and (ii) as backbone for validation and stability analysis of both stratospheric as well as tropospheric satellite ozone retrievals. Using the Long-term Ozone Trends and Uncertainties in the Stratosphere (LOTUS) multiple linear regression model (SPARC/IO3C/GAW, 2019), we found that the stratospheric ozone concentrations at Uccle declined at a significant rate of around 2 %/decade since 1969, rather consistently over the different stratospheric levels. This overall decrease can mainly be assigned to the 1969–1996 period with a rather consistent decline rate around −4 %/decade. Since 2000, a recovery between +1 to +3 %/decade of the stratospheric ozone levels above Uccle is observed, although not significant and not for the upper stratospheric levels measured by ozonesondes. Throughout the entire free troposphere, a very consistent increase of the ozone concentrations at 2 to 3 %/decade is measured since both 1969 and 1995, the latter trend being in almost perfect agreement with the trends derived from the In-service Aircraft for a Global Observing System (IAGOS) ascent/descent profiles at Frankfurt. As the amount of tropopause folding events in the Uccle time series increased significantly over time, increased stratosphere-to-troposphere transport of recovering stratospheric ozone might partly explain these increasing tropospheric ozone concentrations, despite the levelling off in (tropospheric) ozone precursor emissions and notwithstanding the continued increase of mean surface ozone concentrations. Furthermore, we illustrate the crucial role of ozonesonde measurements for validation of satellite ozone profile retrievals. With the operational validation of Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment GOME-2, we show how the Uccle dataset can be used to evaluate the performance of a degradation correction for the MetOp-A/GOME-2 UV sensors. In another example, we illustrate that the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) overpass ozone profiles in the stratosphere agree within ±5 % with the Uccle ozone profiles between 10 and 70 hPa. Another instrument on the same AURA satellite platform, Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES), is generally positively biased with respect to the Uccle ozonesondes in the troposphere by up to ~10 ppbv, corresponding to relative differences up to ~15 %. Using the Uccle ozonesonde time series as reference, we also demonstrate that the temporal stability of those last two satellite retrievals is excellent.

Review of the existing bibliography shows that the direction and magnitude of the long-term trends of UV irradiance, and their main drivers, vary significantly throughout Europe. Analysis of total ozone and spectral UV data recorded at four European stations during 1996&ndash, 2017 reveals that long-term changes in UV are mainly driven by changes in aerosols, cloudiness, and surface albedo, while changes in total ozone play a less significant role. The variability of UV irradiance is large throughout Italy due to the complex topography and large latitudinal extension of the country. Analysis of the spectral UV records of the urban site of Rome, and the alpine site of Aosta reveals that differences between the two sites follow the annual cycle of the differences in cloudiness and surface albedo. Comparisons between the noon UV index measured at the ground at the same stations and the corresponding estimates from the Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD) forecast model and the ozone monitoring instrument (OMI)/Aura observations reveal differences of up to 6 units between individual measurements, which are likely due to the different spatial resolution of the different datasets, and average differences of 0.5&ndash, 1 unit, possibly related to the use of climatological surface albedo and aerosol optical properties in the retrieval algorithms.

Spectral UV records of solar irradiance at stations over Europe, Canada, and Japan were used to study long-term trends at 307.5 nm for a 25-year period, from 1992 to 2016. Ground-based measurements of total ozone, as well as satellite measurements of the Aerosol Index, the Total Cloud Cover and the surface reflectivity were also used in order to attribute the estimated changes of the UV to the corresponding changes of these factors. The present study shows that over the Northern Hemisphere, the long-term changes in UV-B radiation reaching the Earth’s surface vary significantly over different locations, and that the main drivers of these variations are changes in aerosols and total ozone. At high latitudes, part of the observed changes may also be attributed to changes in the surface reflectivity. Over Japan, the UV-B irradiance at 307.5 nm has increased significantly by 3%/decade during the past 25 years, possibly due to the corresponding significant decrease of its absorption by aerosols. It was found that the greatest part of this increase took place before the mid-2000s. The only European station, over which UV radiation increases significantly, is that of Thessaloniki, Greece. Analysis of the clear-sky irradiance for the particular station shows increasing irradiance at 307.5 nm by 3.5%/decade during the entire period of study, with an increasing rate of change during the last decade, possibly again due to the decreasing absorption by aerosols.

The ozonesonde stations at Uccle (Belgium) and De Bilt (the Netherlands) are separated by only 175 km but use different ozonesonde types (or different manufacturers for the same electrochemical concentration cell (ECC) type), operating procedures, and correction strategies. As such, these stations form a unique test bed for the Ozonesonde Data Quality Assessment (O3S-DQA) activity, which aims at providing a revised, homogeneous, consistent dataset with an altitude-dependent estimated uncertainty for each revised profile. For the ECC ozonesondes at Uccle mean relative uncertainties in the 4–6 % range are obtained. To study the impact of the corrections on the ozone profiles and trends, we compared the Uccle and De Bilt average ozone profiles and vertical ozone trends, calculated from the operational corrections at both stations and the O3S-DQA corrected profiles. In the common ECC 1997–2014 period, the O3S-DQA corrections effectively reduce the differences between the Uccle and De Bilt ozone partial pressure values with respect to the operational corrections only for the stratospheric layers below the ozone maximum. The upper-stratospheric ozone measurements at both sites are substantially different, regardless of the correction methodology used. The origin of this difference is not clear. The discrepancies in the tropospheric ozone concentrations between both sites can be ascribed to the problematic background measurement and correction at De Bilt, especially in the period before November 1998. The Uccle operational correction method, applicable to both ozonesonde types used, diminishes the relative stratospheric ozone differences of the Brewer–Mast sondes in the 1993–1996 period with De Bilt to less than 5 % and to less than 6 % in the free troposphere for the De Bilt operational corrections. Despite their large impact on the average ozone profiles, the different (sensible) correction strategies do not change the ozone trends significantly, usually only within their statistical uncertainty due to atmospheric noise. The O3S-DQA corrections bring the Uccle and De Bilt ozone trend estimates for 1997–2014 closer to each other in the lower stratosphere and lower troposphere. Throughout the whole vertical profile, these trend estimates are, however, not significantly different from each other, and only in the troposphere significantly positive. For the entire Uccle observation period (1969–2014), the operational corrections lead to height-independent and consistent ozone trends for both the troposphere and the stratosphere, with rates of +2 to +3 % decade−1 and −1 to −2 % decade−1, respectively.

The UV Index was established more than 20 years ago as a tool for sun protection and health care. Shortly after its introduction, UV Index monitoring started in several countries either by newly acquired instruments or by converting measurements from existing instruments into the UV Index. The number of stations and networks has increased over the years. Currently, 160 stations in 25 European countries deliver online values to the public via the Internet. In this paper an overview of these UV Index monitoring sites in Europe is given. The overview includes instruments as well as quality assurance and quality control procedures. Furthermore, some examples are given about how UV Index values are presented to the public. Through these efforts, 57% of the European population is supplied with high quality information, enabling them to adapt behaviour. Although health care, including skin cancer prevention, is cost-effective, a proportion of the European population still doesn't have access to UV Index information.

We validate the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) Ozone Profile (PROFOZ) product from October 2004 through December 2014 retrieved by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) algorithm against ozonesonde observations. We also evaluate the effects of OMI row anomaly (RA) on the retrieval by dividing the dataset into before and after the occurrence of serious OMI RA, i.e., pre-RA (2004–2008) and post-RA (2009–2014). The retrieval shows good agreement with ozonesondes in the tropics and midlatitudes and for pressure ∼ 50 hPa after applying OMI averaging kernels to ozonesonde data. The MBs of the stratospheric ozone column (SOC, the ozone column from the tropopause pressure to the ozonesonde burst pressure) are within 2 % with SDs of ∼ 50 hPa. The SOC MBs increase up to 3 % with SDs as great as 6 % and the TOC SDs increase up to 30 %. The comparison generally degrades at larger solar zenith angles (SZA) due to weaker signals and additional sources of error, leading to worse performance at high latitudes and during the midlatitude winter. Agreement also degrades with increasing cloudiness for pressure > ∼ 100 hPa and varies with cross-track position, especially with large MBs and SDs at extreme off-nadir positions. In the tropics and midlatitudes, the post-RA comparison is considerably worse with larger SDs reaching 2 % in the stratosphere and 8 % in the troposphere and up to 6 % in TOC. There are systematic differences that vary with latitude compared to the pre-RA comparison. The retrieval comparison demonstrates good long-term stability during the pre-RA period but exhibits a statistically significant trend of 0.14–0.7 % year−1 for pressure

Our objective was to test the hypothesis of a short-term late-promoting effect of ultraviolet (UV) exposure on the development of cutaneous melanoma as an explanation for the summer peak in melanoma incidence. Therefore, we studied seasonal variation in melanoma incidence in relation to recent UV levels by direct UV measurements. Data from the Belgian Cancer Registry on invasive cutaneous melanoma diagnosed during 2006-2011 were used for analysis. Daily data on UV measurements in Belgium were obtained from the Royal Meteorological Institute. Simple and multiple negative binomial regression models were used to investigate the influence of recent UV levels on melanoma incidence. The sum of the mean UV doses in the 2 months before diagnosis was used as a proxy for recent UV exposure in the population. To include variable sunburn risks during the year, the categorical variable 'semester' was created. The incidence of melanoma in Belgium shows a distinct seasonal variation, with peaks in June or July. We found that part of this variation could be explained by the variation in dermatologic activity and, therefore, used this as an offset in our models. We found a linear relationship between melanoma incidence and UV dose in the 2 months preceding the diagnosis. UV levels had more impact in the first semester. The effect of UV levels was not modified by sex nor age. The interaction between anatomical site and UV levels was significant (P=0.002) and showed a higher effect on the upper and lower limbs compared with the head and neck and trunk.

Five day 3D back trajectories have been calculated for air parcels arriving at different pressure levels at Uccle (Belgium, 50 ∘ 48 ′ N , 4 ∘ 21 ′ E , 100 m asl) for the time period 1969–2001 on days where an ozone sounding took place. The trajectory model used is the APTRA model, available at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). A nonhierarchical clustering method has been applied on the obtained 3D back trajectories in function of the season for the planetary boundary layer (PBL) and the lower free troposphere (LFT) to identify natural clusters of air masses. It was possible to derive distinctive clusters of air masses for every season. In the spring season, a reduction in ozone concentrations in the PBL within slow moving air masses from the west, combined with an increase in the frequency of occurrence, seems to be compensated by a positive trend in ozone concentrations at Uccle within the other source regions, mainly within the cluster representing slow moving air masses over the continent. More inflow from North America has been detected during the winter season, resulting in higher ozone concentrations in the PBL.

Our objective was to test the hypothesis of a short-term late-promoting effect of UV exposure on the development of cutaneous melanoma as explanation for the summer peak in melanoma incidence. Therefore, we studied seasonal variation in melanoma incidence in relation to recent UV exposure using direct UV measurements. Data from the Belgian Cancer Registry on invasive cutaneous melanoma diagnosed during 2006-2011 were used for analysis. Daily data on UV measurements in Belgium were obtained from the Royal Meteorological Institute. Simple and multiple negative binomial regression models were used to investigate the influence of recent UV exposure on melanoma incidence. The sum of the mean UV dose in the two months prior to diagnosis was used as a proxy for recent UV exposure in the population. To include variable sunburn risk during the year, the categorical variable ‘semester’ was created. The incidence of melanoma in Belgium shows a distinct seasonal variation with peaks in June or July. We found that part of this variation could be explained by the variation in dermatologic activity and therefore used this as an offset in our models. We found a linear relationship between melanoma incidence and UV dose in the two months preceding the diagnosis. UV exposure had more impact in the first semester. The effect of UV exposure was not modified by gender or age. The interaction between anatomical site and UV exposure was significant (p

Planetary boundary layer (PBL) ozone densities, retrieved from ozone soundings at Uccle (Belgium) and Payerne (Switzerland) between 1990 and 2000 are analysed. This PBL ozone is representative on a regional scale, also in highly polluted areas. At Uccle the yearly cycle of PBL ozone shows late spring and summer maxima, while in Payerne one broad summer maximum with peak in July is present. An overall and a composite multiple linear regression model has been built using meteorological and NO x data as independent variables. For Uccle and Payerne the explained variances for the composite models were 63.43% and 78.97% with an rmse of 15.95 μ g m - 3 and 16.50 μ g m - 3 , respectively. Both stations have an overall significant negative trend during the time period 1997–2000. During winter and autumn there is a positive significant trend present for Payerne and Uccle, which is explained by a decrease in NO x concentrations. For some particular days dynamical effects are illustrated with 10 day 3D backwards trajectories. This shows that further improvement can only be achieved by including chemical and dynamical effects in the models.

The absorption of solar light by atmospheric water vapor in the visible spectral region is analyzed by means of ground-based absorption Fourier transform spectroscopy, performed at high resolution in Brussels during summer 2001. Several microwindows between 14,000 and 18,000 cm-1, in which water vapor lines are well isolated from solar lines and other atmospheric trace gases absorptions, are examined. They are demonstrated to be adequate for the retrieval of the total water vapor column. Based on the retrievals, a detailed analysis of the water vapor line parameters published in the HITRAN database and recently reinvestigated by different groups is performed. The analysis focuses on the one hand on the comparison of the retrieved water vapor columns with in situ measurements, performed at the same time as the spectroscopic measurements and at the same location, and on the other hand on the quality of the spectral fits. It is shown that the discrepancies between the line lists affect significantly the results. In particular it is shown that the weaker lines, not measured in earlier laboratory experiments, do contribute at large zenith angles and need to be taken into account in order to better simulate the atmospheric spectra. The importance of the pressure broadening parameters is also highlighted. © 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved., info:eu-repo/semantics/published

© S.M. Stankov et al., Published by EDP Sciences 2017. A total solar eclipse occurred on 20 March 2015, with a totality path passing mostly above the North Atlantic Ocean, which resulted in a partial solar eclipse over Belgium and large parts of Europe. In anticipation of this event, a dedicated observational campaign was set up at the Belgian Solar-Terrestrial Centre of Excellence (STCE). The objective was to perform high-quality observations of the eclipse and the associated effects on the geospace environment by utilising the advanced space- and ground-based instrumentation available to the STCE in order to further our understanding of these effects, particularly on the ionosphere. The study highlights the crucial importance of taking into account the eclipse geometry when analysing the ionospheric behaviour during eclipses and interpreting the eclipse effects. A detailed review of the eclipse geometry proves that considering the actual obscuration level and solar zenith angle at ionospheric heights is much more important for the analysis than at the commonly referenced Earth's surface or at the plasmaspheric heights. The eclipse occurred during the recovery phase of a strong geomagnetic storm which certainly had an impact on (some of) the ionospheric characteristics and perhaps caused the omission of some "low-profile" effects. However, the analysis of the ionosonde measurements, carried out at unprecedented high rates during the eclipse, suggests the occurrence of travelling ionospheric disturbances (TIDs). Also, the high temporal and spatial resolution measurements proved very important in revealing and estimating some finer details of the delay in the ionospheric reaction and the ionospheric disturbances. ispartof: JOURNAL OF SPACE WEATHER AND SPACE CLIMATE vol:7 status: published

International audience; The strong ozone depletion event that occurred in Arctic during spring 2011 was found to cause appreciable reduction in the ozone column (OC) in Europe, even at lower latitudes. The features of this episode have been analysed using the data recorded at 34 ground-based stations located in the European area and compared with the similar events in 2000 and 2005. The results provided evidence that OC as far south as 40°N latitude was considerably influenced by the Arctic ozone loss in spring 2011. The reduction of OC at the northernmost sites was about 40% with respect to the mean value calculated over the previous six-year period, while a similar decrease at the southern extreme ranged between 15 and 18%, and were delayed by nearly two weeks compared to the Arctic region. The ozone distributions reconstructed for the West Europe sector show that the decline of OC lasted from late March to late April 2011. The echo of the Arctic ozone depletion on mid-latitude UV irradiance has been analysed trough model computations that show an increase of the midday erythemal dose by 3-4 SED (1 SED = 100 J m-2) that was slightly higher than at polar regions. On the other hand it was assessed that the biosystems in the northernmost regions were a subject of about 4 times higher UV stress than those at mid-latitudes. Despite indications of an OC recovery, the event examined here shows that the issue of ozone depletion episodes cannot be belittled.

At the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium the chemical transport model (CTM) CHIMERE runs at a spatial resolution of 7 × 7 km on a domain, covering Belgium and The Netherlands (680 × 680 km). The CTM is first run on a coarse resolution of 50 km covering Western Europe, using the meteorological fields of ECMWF. The emission database is provided by EMEP. The output of this model run is used as input for the boundary conditions for the coupled high resolution chemical transport model run.

Vertical ozone profiles measured with balloon sondes at Uccle are compared with version 5.96 ozone profiles retrieved by the SAGEII instrument to investigate instrumentally induced breaks and/or trends in the Uccle ozone sounding time series. This study covers the period 1985–1999, during which several changes took place in the ozone sounding procedure and processing method. These changes introduced breaks in the time series of ozone soundings, and a number of corrections have been developed that are not part of the standard processing method for ozone soundings. In this paper, we review the standard corrections applied to ozone soundings and describe additional corrections developed at Uccle. The improvement of the ozonesonde data set against SAGE II ozone measurements is shown. Jumps of up to 6% in the relative difference between SAGEII and ozonesondes are removed with corrections taking into account quality changes of the ozonesonde and the radiosonde. New corrections and refinements to the existing correction procedure reduce the drift between SAGEII and ozonesondes from −0.51% yr−1 to −0.07% yr−1 between 17 and 22 km with nonsignificant values at the 2σ level at all altitudes.

Uccle is a European station with a long tradition in measuring ozone profiles with Brewer-Mast (BM) ozone sensors. In 1996 the use of model Z electrochemical concentration cell (Z-ECC) ozonesondes, manufactured by EN-SCI Corporation, was considered. To document the changeover from BM to Z-ECC ozonesondes, a program of double soundings was started in October 1996. With the use of an appropriate correction procedure, accounting for the loss of pump efficiency with decreasing pressure and temperature, it is possible to reduce the mean difference between ozone profiles obtained with both types of sondes below 3%, which is statistically insignificant over nearly the whole operational altitude range (from the ground to 32 km). It is concluded that with this new method the uncertainty, introduced in trend analyses by the changeover, is less than the internal uncertainty within the BM time series. The required corrections are discussed according to measurements of the pump efficiencies at different pressures and temperatures in a vacuum chamber.

LONG-TERM depletion of ozone has been observed since the early 1980s in the Antarctic polar vortex, and more recently at mid-latitudes in both hemispheres, with most of the ozone loss occurring in the lower stratosphere1. Insufficient measurements of ozone exist, however, to determine decadal trends in ozone concentration in the Arctic winter. Several studies of ozone concentrations in the Arctic vortex have inferred that chemical ozone loss has occurred2–11; but because natural variations in ozone concentration at any given location can be large, deducing long-term trends from time series is fraught with difficulties. The approaches used previously have often been indirect, typically relying on relationships between ozone and long-lived tracers. Most recently Manney et al.11used such an approach, based on satellite measurements, to conclude that the observed ozone decrease of about 20% in the lower stratosphere in February and March 1993 was caused by chemical, rather than dynamical, processes. Here we report the results of a new approach to calculate chemical ozone destruction rates that allows us to compare ozone concentrations in specific air parcels at different times, thus avoiding the need to make assumptions about ozone/tracer ratios. For the Arctic vortex of the 1991-92 winter we find that, at 20 km altitude, chemical ozone loss occurred only between early January and mid February and that the loss is proportional to the exposure to sunlight. The timing and magnitude are broadly consistent with existing understanding of photochemical ozone-depletion processes.

An increased pulse pressure (difference between systolic and diastolic blood pressure) suggests aortic stiffening. The objective of this study was to examine the acute effects of both particulate matter (PM) mass and composition on blood pressure, among elderly persons. We carried out a panel study in persons living in elderly homes in Antwerp, Belgium. We recruited 88 non-smoking persons, 70% women with a mean age of 83 years (standard deviation: 5.2). Blood pressure was measured and a blood sample was collected on two time points, which were chosen so that there was an exposure contrast in ambient PM exposure. The elemental content of the collected indoor and outdoor PM2.5 (particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter

Background and Aims: An increased pulse pressure (Δ systolic – diastolic pressure) suggests aortic stiffening. New evidence also suggests that pulse pressure is a more sensitive measure of risk tha...

A near real-time assimilation and forecast system of aerosols has been developed by integration in the ECMWF IFS code within the GEMS project. The GEMS aerosol modeling system is novel as it is the first aerosol model fully coupled to a NWP model with data assimilation. Aerosol optical depth (AOD) data of the MODIS instrument on Terra and Aqua satellites was assimilated. The performance of the aerosol model was evaluated by the means of case studies. The assimilation of MODIS AOD improved the subsequent aerosol predictions when compared with observations, in particular concerning correlations and AOD peak values. The assimilation is less effective in correcting a positive or a negative bias.

At the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium we use the chemical transport model (CTM) CHIMERE. In a first phase it has been coupled to meteo fields from ECMWF. The emission database used is EMEP. The simulation domain covers Western Europe with a spatial resolution of 50 km. RMI also runs the Limited Area NWP model ALADIN operationally four times a day at a spatial resolution of 7 km. The meteorological fields from ALADIN have been used to apply a one way nesting to the CTM model running at a spatial resolution of 7 km on a domain of about 680 × 680 km2 covering Belgium and The Netherlands. The emission database used for this high resolution is the TNO/GEMS emission database. We present the first results of this coupling for ozone and PM10 for two different episodes. Also the influence of running ALADIN and its updated version ALARO with improved physical parameterizations will be investigated.

[1] The long-term UV climatology and trend analysis in the COST-Action 726 requires daily solar cloud modification factors (SOL-CMFs) as input of algorithms, transforming them into UV-CMFs. A CMF is the ratio of all-sky to clear-sky downwelling irradiation. A complete spatial and temporal coverage is achieved by calculating daily SOL-CMFs on the 1° × 1° COST-726 grid (31°N to 80°N, 25°W to 35°E) using the ERA-40 shortwave net all-sky and clear-sky irradiation. Known deficiencies in ERA-40 SOL-CMFs (especially the bias due to clouds) are corrected using SOL-CMFs derived from pyranometer observations. These are determined based on measured daily sums of solar global irradiation from up to 152 European sites from several data sources. An analysis of clear-sky days during 1981–1993 and a comparison with results from high-quality data enabled the selection of appropriate sites in the Mediterranean and southeast Europe from data that has not been classified as that of the group of best quality. For these sites and the period 1964–1980, a homogenization is performed. A cross-validation of all daily SOL-CMFs from observations is performed prior to their gridding. Gridding uses ordinary Kriging. Bias-corrected ERA-40 and SOL-CMFs from observations are merged using a distance-dependent weight derived from overall structural analysis. The COST-726 database offers daily SOL-CMF fields of complete spatial coverage from 1958 to 2002. They are unbiased and of known quality. The aerosol direct radiative effect included in the SOL-CMFs from observations is retained and accounts for long-term aerosol trends in agreement with the trends of dimming and brightening.

(1) The Aerosol Optical Depths (AODs) retrieved from Brewer Ozone Spectrophotometer measurements with a method previously developed (Cheymol and De Backer, 2003) are now validated by comparisons between AODs from six Brewer spectrophotometers and two CSEM SPM2000 sunphotometers: two Brewer spectrophotometers 016 and 178 at Uccle in Belgium; one Brewer spectrophotometer 128 and one sunphotometer CSEM SPM2000 at Norrkoping in Sweden; and three Brewer instruments 040, 072, 156 at Arosa and one CSEM SPM2000 sunphotometer at Davos in Switzerland. The comparison between AODs from Brewer spectrophotometer 128 at 320.1 nm and sunphotometer SPM2000 at 368 nm at Norrkoping shows that the AODs obtained from the Brewer measurements with the Langley Plot Method (LPM) are very accurate if the neutral density filter spectral transmittances are well known: with the measured values of these filters, the correlation coefficient, the slope, and the intercept of the regression line are 0.98, 0.85 ± 0.004, and 0.02 ± 0.0014, respectively. The bias observed is mainly owing to the wavelength difference between the two instruments. The comparison between AODs from different Brewer spectrophotometers confirm that AODs will be in very good agreement if they are measured with several Brewer instruments at the same place: At Uccle, the correlation coefficient, slope, and intercept of the regression line are 0.98, 1.02 ± 0.003, and 0.06 ± 0.001, respectively; at Arosa, the comparisons between the AODs from three Brewer spectrophotometers 040, 072, and 156 give a correlation coefficient, a slope, and an intercept of the regression line above 0.94, 0.98 and below 0.04, respectively.

[1] Since 1984, Brewer spectrophotometer #16 has measured the ozone column at Uccle near Brussels in Belgium (50°48′N, 4°21′E, 100 m) from the direct sun observations at five isolated wavelengths in the UV-B: 306.3 nm, 310.1 nm, 313.5 nm, 316.7 nm and 320.1 nm. We have used the Langley Plot Method (LPM) to retrieve the aerosol optical depth (AOD) from these observations over a long time period: from 1984 to November 2002. A seasonal variation of the AOD is clearly observed with mean AOD values of about 0.4 and 0.9 at 306.3 nm in winter and in summer respectively. The magnitude of these AODs is comparable to the AODs measured by AERONET sunphotometers at other places. We succeeded to demonstrate the impact of the eruption of Mount Pinatubo on the retrieved AOD in the UV-B at Uccle in winter. Trend analysis on the mean annual AOD gives significant negative trends at the 2σ level only from 1989 to 2002 at all wavelengths and not over the whole period 1984–2002. The annual trend amounts to −2.46 ± 0.37%/year at 306.3 nm over 1989–2002. Significant negative seasonal trends at the 2σ level are only found in winter at all wavelengths (−2.66 ± 0.65%/year at 306.3 nm for example) and in summer at 306.3 nm (−1.24 ± 0.55%/year). In summer, in autumn and in spring at the other 4 wavelengths the trends are not significant at the 2σ level.

Total ozone measurements have been performed at Uccle (50 degree(s)48'N, 4 degree(s)21'E) with Dobson spectrophotometer 40 since August 1971 and with Brewer instrument 16 since July 1983. The reduced thickness of sulfur dioxide (SO2) as calculated from measurements with the Brewer spectrophotometer shows a decreasing trend that is in good agreement with the trend of in situ measurements of SO2 density near the ground in the urban area of Brussels. From the mean annual variation of the ratio of both variables the corresponding correction for SO2 interference of the Dobson instrument data was calculated on a month-by-month basis. From a comparison of the total ozone trends before and after SO2 correction, it appeared that over the whole time period (August 1971 to May 1993) the SO2 decrease at Uccle has induced a fictitious Dobson total ozone trend that amounts to a mean value of -1.47% per decade. More than half of the stations which have been used in the past in ozone trend studies are located within an urban area with a population of over 100,000 and are in consequence possibly affected by air pollution.© (1993) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

For a proper understanding of long term trends in atmospheric ozone concentrations, the availability of high quality data sets is of great importance. At present, total ozone column densities are routinely measured by the ground based Dobson, Brewer and M-83/124 filter ozonometer networks, as well as by satellite based instruments such as the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS). Vertical concentration profiles are obtained by ground based Umkehr methods, balloon borne electrochemical ozone sondes and by satellite based limb path atmospheric extinction measurements, such as the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiments (SAGE I/II).

Lidar-based ozone data sets may be meteorologically biased since the measurements are performed in the absence of precipitation and fog and the vertical profiles are truncated at the cloud base. This problem was studied for the routine ozone lidar facility at Bilthoven, Netherlands (52°07′N, 5°12′E). We used the long-term data record of balloon soundings at Uccle, Belgium (50°48′N, 4°21′E) between 1969 and 1992 to examine the average ozone concentrations as a function of altitude and season at different amounts of cloud cover. Since Uccle and Bilthoven are only 160 km apart and to a large extent have the same climatology, the Uccle data are assumed to be representative of the atmospheric conditions at Bilthoven. The data set of ozone profiles was arranged into several subsets according to increasing amounts of cloud cover. When compared to the total set, the subset for clear sky conditions showed significantly lower ozone partial pressures (absolute differences down to −2.37 mPa and percentage differences down to −43.6%) around the tropopause in spring and early summer and higher values (up to +1.10 mPa and +39.2%) in the lower troposphere in summer. These phenomena are explained by differences in the average origin of air masses and photochemical ozone production. The results have led to the definition of the monitoring strategy for the tropospheric ozone lidar facility at Bilthoven such that a meteorological bias in the set of ozone profiles is avoided.

Radiation fog occurs over many locations around the world in stable atmospheric conditions. Air traffic at busy airports can be significantly disrupted because low visibility at the ground makes it unsafe to take off, land and taxi on the ground. Current numerical weather prediction forecasts are able to predict general conditions favorable for fog formation, but not the exact time or location of fog occurrence. A selected set of observations available in near-real time at strategic locations could also be useful to track the evolution of key processes and key parameters that drive fog formation. Such observations could complement the information predicted by numerical weather prediction (NWP) models that is made available to airport forecasters in support of their fog forecast. This paper presents an experimental setup based on collocated automatic lidar and ceilometer measurements, relative humidity measurements and horizontal visibility measurements to study hygroscopic growth of fog condensation nuclei. This process can take several minutes to hours, and can be tracked using lidar- or ceilometer-attenuated backscatter profiles. Based on hygroscopic growth laws we derive a set of parameters that can be used to provide alerts minutes to hours prior to formation of radiation fog. We present an algorithm that uses the temporal evolution of attenuated backscatter measurements to derive pre-fog formation alerts. The performance of the algorithm is tested on 45 independent pre-fog situations at two locations (near Paris, France, and Brussels, Belgium). We find that an alert for pre-fog conditions predominantly occurs 10–50 min prior to fog formation at an altitude ranging 0 to 100 m above ground. In a few cases, alerts can occur up to 100 min prior to fog formation. Alert durations are found to be sensitive to the relative humidity conditions found a few hours prior to the fog.

This study introduces an Earth observation (EO)-based system which is capable of operationally estimating and continuously monitoring the ultraviolet index (UVI) in Europe. The UVIOS (i.e. UV-Index Operating System) exploits a synergy of radiative transfer models with high performance computing and EO data from satellites (Meteosat Second Generation and Meteorological Operational Satellite-B), and retrieval processes (Tropospheric Emission Monitoring Internet Service, Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service and the Global Land Service). It provides a near-real-time now-casting and short-term forecasting service for UV radiation over Europe. The main atmospheric inputs for the UVI simulations include ozone, clouds and aerosols while the impacts of ground elevation and surface albedo are also taken into account. The UVIOS output is the UVI at high spatial and temporal resolution (5 km and 15 minutes, respectively) for Europe (i.e. 1.5 million pixels) in real-time. The UVI is empirically related to biologically important UV dose rates and the reliability of this EO-based solution was verified against ground-based measurements from 17 stations across Europe. Stations are equipped with spectral, broadband or multi-filter instruments and cover a range of topographic and atmospheric conditions. A period of over one year of forecasted 15-min retrievals under all sky conditions were compared with the ground–based measurements. UVIOS forecasts were within ±0.5 of measured UVI for at least 70 % of the data compared at all stations. For clear sky conditions the agreement was better than 0.5 UVI for 80 % of the data. A sensitivity analysis of EO inputs and UVIOS outputs was performed in order to quantify the level of uncertainty in the derived products, and to identify the covariance between the accuracy of the output and the spatial and temporal resolution, and the quality of the inputs. Overall, UVIOS slightly overestimated UVI due to observational uncertainties in inputs of cloud and aerosol. This service will hopefully contribute to EO capabilities and will assist the provision of operational early warning systems that will help raise awareness among European Union citizens of the health implications of high UVI doses.

Eighteen radiative transfer models in use for calculation of UV index are compared with respect to their results for more than 100 cloud-free atmospheres, which describe present, possible future and extreme conditions. The comparison includes six multiple-scattering spectral models, eight fast spectral models and four empirical models. Averages of the results of the six participating multiple-scattering spectral models are taken as a basis for assessment. The agreement among the multiple-scattering models is within +/- 0.5 UV index values for more than 80 per cent of chosen atmospheric parameters. The fast spectral models have very different agreement, between ¤ 1 and up to 12 UV index values. The results of the empirical models agree reasonably well with the reference models but only for the atmospheres for which they have been developed. The data to describe the atmospheric conditions, which are used for the comparison, together with the individual results of all participating models and model descriptions are available on the Internet: http://www.meteo.physik.uni-muenchen.de/strahlung/cost/.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) have jointly recommended that the UV Index (UVI) should be used to inform the public about possible health risks due to overexposure to solar radiation, especially skin damage. To test the current operational status of measuring and modelling techniques used in providing the public with UVI information, this article compares cloudless sky UVIs (measured using five instruments at four locations with different latitudes and climate) with the results of 13 models used in UVI forecasting schemes. For the models, only location, total ozone and solar zenith angle were provided as input parameters. In many cases the agreement is acceptable, i.e. less than 0.5 UVI. Larger differences may originate from instrumental errors and shortcomings in the models and their input parameters. A possible explanation for the differences between models is the treatment of the unknown input parameters, especially aerosols. Copyright © 2001 Royal Meteorological Society

We apply methods from extreme value theory to identify extreme events in high (termed EHOs) and low (termed ELOs) total ozone and to describe the distribution tails (i.e. very high and very low values) of five long-term European ground-based total ozone time series. The influence of these extreme events on observed mean values, long-term trends and changes is analysed. The results show a decrease in EHOs and an increase in ELOs during the last decades, and establish that the observed downward trend in column ozone during the 1970–1990s is strongly dominated by changes in the frequency of extreme events. Furthermore, it is shown that clear ‘fingerprints’ of atmospheric dynamics (NAO, ENSO) and chemistry [ozone depleting substances (ODSs), polar vortex ozone loss] can be found in the frequency distribution of ozone extremes, even if no attribution is possible from standard metrics (e.g. annual mean values). The analysis complements earlier analysis for the world's longest total ozone record at Arosa, Switzerland, confirming and revealing the strong influence of atmospheric dynamics on observed ozone changes. The results provide clear evidence that in addition to ODS, volcanic eruptions and strong/moderate ENSO and NAO events had significant influence on column ozone in the European sector.DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0889.2011.00575.x