Erythemal UV dose from UV-B Broad band detector at Dumont d'Urville, Antarctica

Instrument History:

The biometer was installed in 1995 at Dumont d’Urville to monitoring the evolution of ultraviolet radiation (UV) over this region and to evaluate the influence of ozone depletion on UV. The biometer at Dumont d’Urville is working continuously since 1995. The French Polar Institute (IPEV – Institut Polaire Français Paul-Emile Victor) supplies recurrent funding and logistics.

Between 1995 and 2009 no calibration was performed. To ensure good quality data the instrument has to be calibrated regularly. A new biometer of the same model as the old one was installed in January 2008 at Dumont d’Urville. The two instruments have been operated in parallel during a two months period, and then the 15 years old instrument was sent back to the laboratory in February 2008 for calibration. The calibration has taken place in a special laboratory equipped for certified UV-calibration at Davos, Switzerland in summer 2009.

Instrument description:

The biometer is a broadband radiometer commercialized by Solar Light (501 UV-Biometer Version 1.0). See http://www.solarlight.com/products/501.html for details.

Algorithm description:

The raw data daily provided by the instrument correspond to an erythemal dose every time step. Since 2000, measurements were performed each 5 minutes.