Tropospheric ultraviolet (UV) radiation is the driving force for all tropospheric photochemical processes. Photons at UV wavelengths have the potential to break usually fairly stable molecules into very reactive fragments (photolysis) and thus initiate reaction chains otherwise unlikely or even impossible.

UV radiation is also harmful to living organisms and detrimental to human health. High doses of UV radiation are considered the major contributing factor for the development of skin cancer or cataracts. UV radiation can weaken the human immune system and can affect crop yields and phytoplankton activity (to only name a few effects).

Therefore, in deepening our knowledge of the atmosphere, and of the troposphere in particular, it is mandatory that we increase our understanding of the radiative field, especially in the ultraviolet range.  Some questions of interest might be:  What factors influence the amount of UV radiation available?  What is the vertical structure of the radiative field?  What sort of feedbacks (e.g., increased/decreased photolysis rates) can be expected from perturbations that - directly or indirectly - affect UV radiation?  What are some of the health-related effects that can be expected from changes in atmospheric composition?

For many years there have been efforts in ACD to develop and improve a one-dimensional model to compute the propagation and distribution of ultraviolet and visible light throughout the troposphere. Although development is (and probably always will be) ongoing, the model as it stands now has aided many groups around the world in their related research.

Download the latest version (V3.9) of TUV right here:

For comments or questions contact the TUV administrators.

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