A 5-year climatology of the solar erythemal ultraviolet in Athens, Greece

Observations of solar ultraviolet (UV) irradiance in Athens for the period 1993-1997 employing the Yankee Environmental Systems (YES) pyranometer (mod el UVB-1) are analysed to provide a climatological description of the eryth emally active UV component in this urban Mediterranean environment. The rol e of cloud cover and the ozone column in the determination of the UV climat e are estimated by a comparison of the record of UV irradiance with daily o bservations of total ozone at the University of Athens and of total solar r adiation at the National Observatory of Athens. During the warmer months, J une to September, there appears to be a substantial reduction of solar UV b y atmospheric components other than ozone and clouds, a conclusion that is supported by comparing the observations with the predictions of radiative t ransfer models and with UV observations in a rural southern hemisphere envi ronment reported by McKenzie et al. (1991). Copyright (C) 2000 Royal Meteor ological Society.