The browser you are using is not supported by this website. All versions of Internet Explorer are no longer supported, either by us or Microsoft (read more here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/windows/end-of-ie-support).

Please use a modern browser to fully experience our website, such as the newest versions of Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari etc.

Attempts to probe the ozone layer and the ultraviolet-B levels of the past

På svenska

Author

Summary, in English

To get a proper perspective on the current status of atmospheric ozone, which protects the biosphere from ultraviolet-B (UV-B; 280-315 nm) radiation, it would be of value to know how ozone and UV-13 radiation have varied in the past. The record of worldwide ozone monitoring goes back only a few decades, and the record of reliable UV-13 measurements is even shorter. Here we review indirect methods to assess their status further back in time. These include variations in the Sun's emission and how these affect the atmosphere, changes in the Earth's orbit, geologic imprints of atmospheric ozone, effects of catastrophic events such as volcanic eruptions, biological proxies of UV-13 radiation, the spectral signature of terrestrial ozone in old recordings of star spectra, and the modeling of UV-B irradiance from ozone data and meteorological recordings. Although reliable reconstructions do not yet extend far into the past, there is some hope for future progress.

Publishing year

2007

Language

English

Pages

366-371

Publication/Series

Ambio: a Journal of Human Environment

Volume

36

Issue

5

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Springer

Topic

  • Biological Sciences

Status

Published

Project

  • Photobiology

Research group

  • Photobiology

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0044-7447