Alois W. Schmalwieser¹, Julian Gröbner², Mario Blumthaler³, Barbara Klotz³, Hugo De Backer⁴, David Bolsée⁵, Rolf Werner⁶, Davor Tomsic⁷, Ladislav Metelka⁸, Paul Eriksen⁹, Nis Jepsen⁹, Margit Aun¹⁰, Anu Heikkilä¹¹, Thierry Duprat¹², Henner Sandmann¹³, Tilman Weiss¹⁴, Alkis Bais¹⁵, Zoltan Toth¹⁶, Anna-Maria Siani¹⁷, Luisa Vaccaro¹⁸, Henri Diémoz¹⁹, Daniele Grifoni²⁰, Gaetano Zipoli²¹, Giuseppe Lorenzetto²², Boyan H. Petkov²³, Alcide Giorgio di Sarra²⁴, Francis Massen²⁵, Charles Yousif²⁶, Alexandr A. Aculinin²⁷, Peter den Outer²⁸, Tove Svendby²⁹, Arne Dahlback³⁰, Bjørn Johnsen³¹, Julita Biszczuk-Jakubowska³², Janusz Krzyscin³³, Diamantino Henriques³⁴, Natalia Chubarova³⁵, Predrag Kolarž³⁶, Zoran Mijatovic³⁷, Drago Groselj³⁸, Anna Pribullova³⁹, Juan Ramon Moreta Gonzales⁴⁰, Julia Bilbao⁴¹, José Manuel Vilaplana Guerrero⁴², Antonio Serrano⁴³, Sandra Andersson⁴⁴, Laurent Vuilleumier⁴⁵, Ann Webb⁴⁶, and John O’Hagan⁴⁷,
¹University of Veterinary Medicine, Unit of Physiology and Biophysics, Vienna, Austria, ²PMOD/WRC, Davos Dorf, Switzerland, ³Medical Univ. Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria, ⁴Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium, Observations, Brussels, Belgium, ⁵Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy, Brussels, Belgium, ⁶Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Stara Zagora, Bulgaria, ⁷Metorological and hydrological institute of Croatia, Metorological and hydrological institute of Croati, Croatia, ⁸Czech Hydrometeorological Institute, Solar and Ozone Department, Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic, ⁹Danish Meteorological Institute, Copenhagen, Denmark, ¹⁰Tartu Observatory, Tartumaa, Estonia, ¹¹Finnish Meteorological Institute, Helsinki, Finland, ¹²Météo-France, Toulouse Cedex, France, ¹³Bundesamt fur Strahlenschutz Neuherberg, Section for Optical Radiation, Neuherberg, Germany, ¹⁴sglux GmbH, Berlin, Germany, ¹⁵Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, ¹⁶Hungarian Meteorological Service, Marczell György Main Observatory, Budapest, Hungary, ¹⁷Sapienza Universita’ di Roma, Physics Department, Rome, Italy, ¹⁸ISPRA, Physical Agents Unit, Rome, Italy, ¹⁹ARPA Valle d’Aosta loc, Saint-Christophe, Italy, ²⁰LaMMA Consortium, Institute of Biometeorology of the National Research Council, Sesto Fiorentino, Italy, ²¹CNR-IBIMET, Florence, Italy, ²²ARPA di Vicenza, Vicenza, Italy, ²³National Research Council, Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate, Bologna, Italy, ²⁴ENEA, Laboratory for Observations and Analyses of the Earth and Climate, Rome, Italy, ²⁵Lycée Classique de Diekirch, Computarium and meteoLCD, Diekirch, Luxembourg, ²⁶University of Malta, Institute for Sustainable Energy, Marsaxlokk, Malta, ²⁷Institute of Applied Physics of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova, Kishinev, Moldova (the Republic of), ²⁸Dutch National Health Institute (RIVM), Netherlands, ²⁹NILU – Norwegian Institute for Air Research, Kjeller, Norway, ³⁰University of Oslo, Institute of Physics, Oslo, Norway, ³¹Statens Stralevern, Monitoring and Research, Oesteras, Norway, ³²Institute of Meteorology and Water Management, Gdynia, Poland, ³³Institute of Geophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warszw, Poland, ³⁴Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera, Observatório Afonso Chaves, Ponta Delgada S. Miguel, Portugal, ³⁵Moscow State University, Moscow, Russian Federation, ³⁶University of Belgrade, Zemun, Serbia, ³⁷University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia, ³⁸Slovenian Environment Agency, Ljubljana, Slovenia, ³⁹Slovakian Academy of Sciences, Tatranska Lomnica, Slovakia, ⁴⁰Spanish Meteorological Agency, Area of Atmospheric Observation Networks, Madrid, Spain, ⁴¹University of Valladolid, Valladolid, Spain, ⁴²National Institute for Aerospace Technology, Mazagon, Spain, ⁴³University of Extremadura, Department of Physics, Badajoz, Spain, ⁴⁴SMHI, Norköpping, Sweden, ⁴⁵MeteoSwiss, Atmospheric data division, Payerne, Switzerland, ⁴⁶University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, ⁴⁷Public Health England Centre for Radiation Chemical and Environmental Hazards, Radiation Dosimetry, Didcot, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Journal: Photochemical & Photobiological Sciences, Publisher: The Royal Society of Chemistry.
Abstract
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.