UV irradiance and albedo at Union Glacier Camp (Antarctica): a case study.

We report on the first spectral measurements of ultraviolet (UV) irradiance and the albedo at a Camp located in the southern Ellsworth Mountains on the broad expanse of Union Glacier (700 m altitude, 79° 46' S; 82° 52'W); about 1,000 km from the South Pole. The measurements were carried ou...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PLoS ONE
Main Authors: Raul R Cordero, Alessandro Damiani, Jorge Ferrer, Jose Jorquera, Mario Tobar, Fernando Labbe, Jorge Carrasco, David Laroze
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2014
Subjects:
Medicine
R
Science
Q
Ellsworth Mountains
South Pole
Union Glacier
Antarc*
Antarctica
South pole
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0090705
https://doaj.org/article/59d5f88990f744a8989e451c446b1ec4
Description
Summary:We report on the first spectral measurements of ultraviolet (UV) irradiance and the albedo at a Camp located in the southern Ellsworth Mountains on the broad expanse of Union Glacier (700 m altitude, 79° 46' S; 82° 52'W); about 1,000 km from the South Pole. The measurements were carried out by using a double monochromator-based spectroradiometer during a campaign (in December 2012) meant to weight up the effect of the local albedo on the UV irradiance. We found that the albedo measured at noon was about 0.95 in the UV and the visible part of the spectrum. This high surface reflectivity led to enhancements in the UV index under cloudless conditions of about 50% in comparison with snow free surfaces. Spectral measurements carried out elsewhere as well as estimates retrieved from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) were used for further comparisons.

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