General comments
This is my second review of the manuscript by Krzyścin et al. The manuscript has improved greatly based on my earlier comments and those of the second reviewer. I would like to thank the authors for their efforts and I feel that the manuscript is now almost ready for publication. However, there are still a few issues (discussed below) that should be taken into consideration. Most importantly, the uncertainty estimates should be changed from the 1-sigma level to the 2-sigma level to be more in line with similar estimates of trends reported for other locations (I apologize that I didn’t catch this in my 1st review). Furthermore, some parts of the manuscript could still be improved to better readability.
Specific major comments:
According to line 488, Tables 6 and 7 list the trends and their standard errors. The latter values apparently refer to the standard deviation associated with the trend’s slope calculated with ordinary least squares (OLS) regression (if my interpretation is correct). I find this representation unusual because published uncertainties of trends in UV radiation typically refer to a certain confidence level, most frequently 95%. In OLS (without considering autocorrelation), the uncertainty of a trend is defined as the product of the standard error (used by the authors) and the Student's t statistic for the given confidence level and number of samples. To be more in line with many publications that have estimate trends in UV radiation and their uncertainty at other locations, I suggest that the authors use the same approach and report the uncertainties of their trend estimates for a confidence level of 95%. For a large number of samples (which is the case here), the Student’s t statistic is approximately two. Hence the uncertainty values provided in Tables 6 and 7 could be multiplied with 2 to refer to a confidence level of 95% (although technically, it would be a confidence level of 95.45% as 95.45% of values of a normal distribution are within +/- 2 sigma). When using this approach, the number printed in bold in Tables 6 and 7 (indicating significant trends at the 2-sigma level) would also align with the actual numbers of the uncertainty estimate.
L3811ff: I think the assumption that CC2 values are equal to 1 over the period 1976−1992 cannot be supported with the comparison of simultaneous measurements for the periods 1992−1994. Results from that comparison cannot rule out that the sensitivity of the instrument has changed between 1976 and 1992. Fortunately, this does not seem to be the case because the ratios of the modelled and observed DRE values shown in Figure 6a (blue dataset) is rather flat. Hence, the wording in the paragraph starting on line 381 should be toned down, stating that a constant value of 1 is just an assumption that is not supported by data and that the conclusion that the instrument has not drifted significantly over this period can only be established from the CC1 values. This also means that the “oscillation with 0.015 amplitude” mentioned on line 388 is not supported with real data and should be removed.
L433–436: I don’t understand the sentence starting with “The performance”. Please rephrase and better explain the rationale.
L586: The Conclusions are rather disconnected from the rest of the paper and some conclusions are not supported by the paper’s results. For example, overlapping datasets were not discussed sufficiently in this paper. So this statement is not supported by the results and should therefore be removed. Please consider improving the Conclusions.
Specific minor comments:
L120-121: It is described here that sunburn units are converted to MED. However, in the remainder of the manuscript either the UV dose or the UV index are discussed. Hence, it would be good to mention explicitly that MEDs were converted to the erythemal dose by multiplication with 210 J m-2.
L136: “roughly calibrated” sounds awkward. I would be better to say that these instruments were calibrated by the manufacturer but that these calibrations are subject to large uncertainties. Then emphasize again that one objective of the work presented in this manuscript is to adjust the manufacturer’s calibration in order to reduce these uncertainties.
L148: “daily average TCO3 measurements throughout the day” is awkward. A daily average is one number per day. Just delete “throughout the day”.
L180: Please state the “typical values” that were used, in particular the values of the single scattering albedo and the asymmetry parameter.
L186: In addition to TUV (2025), please also consider to cite the paper introducing the TUV model: “Madronich, S.: UV radiation in the natural and perturbed atmosphere, in: UV-B Radiation and Ozone depletion. Effects on Humans, Animals, Plants, Microorganisms, and Materials, edited by: Tevini, M., 2, Lewis Publishers, Boca Raton, 17-69, 1993.”
L212: Regarding “(equal to the value of erythemal irradiance at noon during a cloudless day).” If there were scattered clouds, which can increase the UVR beyond the noon clear sky value, was the noon value archived or the maximum UVI under those clouds?
L221: Adding to my previous comment: If UVI_max and not the noon values was archived, there would be a bias because the model only calculates the clear sky value at noon. Was this taken into consideration?
L217: The term “synthetic” can be misleading. I would prefer using the word “modelled” throughout the document when referring to the results obtained with the radiative transfer model.
L234: it was not discussed previously what the difference between CC1 and CC2 results is. So mentioning "even greater differences" is odd if there is no reference.
L248 and similar: If find it odd to use symbols with two letters for year, month and day of the month. Why not just use Y, M, and D?
L252: Do you really mean “Julian Day” here? The Julian Day is the day since 1 January 4713 BC (e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_day). Is that what you mean or do you mean the “day of the year” (a value between 1 and 366)?
L336: regarding “monthly ratios”: Do you mean: "monthly averages of the ratios of BS064 and KZ616 measurements during clear skies"? If so, please say so!
Paragraph starting on line 348: It is confusing that the discussion jumps between the Brewer/KZ comparison in Figures 2 and 3 to the model comparison in Figure 4 and then back to the Brewer–KZ comparison in Figure 5. I suggest to move Figure 5 before Figure 4, and discuss the annual cycle of the correction coefficient CC1 at the end.
L454: Mod1 does not use “re-evaluated ERE values”. It uses radiative transfer calculations and CMFs.
L472: Since TCO3 and cloud transparency data are available, it should be analyzed whether these large fluctuations are caused by either or both of the two factors.
L545: “standard error of ~1 % per decade” should be changed to “standard error of ~2 % per decade at a 95% confidence levels” per my “major” comment above.
Technical comments
L17: “the erythema” > erythema
L20: Robertson-Berger > Robertson-Berger meter, Kipp-Zonen > Kipp & Zonen (please use consistent spelling with “&” throughout!
L25: Brewer spectrometer > Brewer spectrophotometer (at least that’s the official name of the instrument, although it is not really a photometer)
L28: “on common UVR indices” Don’t use “indices” since this can be confused with the UV Index. Use either “proxy data” or rephrase, e.g.: “depending on the most important factors affecting UVR (total column ozone …)”
L44: “in the catalytic” > “in a catalytic” or “ in … cycles
L59: effective > “important factors”
L69: “the radiative” > “a radiative”
L71: “were their results in” > “were that their results were reported in”
L78: I note that the Solar Light Biometer’s model number is referred to as “501A” here, without a space between “501” and “A”. In the rest of the manuscript, the model name is referred to as “501 A”, i.e., with a space between “501” and “A”. I believe the spelling without a space is the correct one and should be used throughout the document. This would also improve readability since an orphaned “A” looks awkward.
L94: “Database Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change (NDACC) include also stations” > The data archive of Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change (NDACC) also includes data of stations with at least three decades of”
L102: “and UV index” > “and the UV index”
L111: “calculations in” > calculations for”
L112: “and versions of the recalculated” > “and three versions of recalculated”
L126: “those with” > “those obtained with”
L142: involved > used
L167: What are “intra-day TCO3 values”? Do you mean “several TCO3 values throughout the day”?
Table 1: The Kipp & Zonen (not Kipp-Zonen) UV-AE-T serial number is given here as “30616”. In the rest of the manuscript, the serial number of the instrument is referenced as “616”. Please use the correct serial number throughout the document. Regarding the TCO3 row in the table, in addition to the Dobson measurements, also the source of the TCO3 satellite data used in the manuscript should be mentioned here.
L185: “the look-up” > look-up
L190-191: Reverse the sequence of the two equations. Since Eq. (1) uses the result of Eq. (2) as input, Eq. (2) should be first.
L197: The text uses upper case acronyms for eryt, vitD3 and psor. Please use consistent spelling.
L120: “(t=noon)” > “for noon”. Also please specify whether you refer to local solar noon or a specific time (e.g., 12:00) that remains constant throughout the year.
L208: Delete “intraday”
L225: below > “less than”
L259: excluded > “ruled out”
L260: delete “should” or better, repeat “that”
L270: “the current day” > “a given day”
Eq. (7): The subscript in “c_k” should be upper case to be consistent with the spelling elsewhere
L309: “model value” > “the value of the regression model” (to make clear that this is not the RT model)
L331: “KZ616 replaced the raw SL501 A #2011,” > “data of KZ616 replaced the raw data of SL510A”
Figures 2 and 5: Replace “Biometer” with “EBR” on the title of the y-axis.
L344: monthly > monthly average
Figure 4: The title of the y-axis should be “Correction coefficient”
L398: Why “original”? There is only one KZ data set as these data were not corrected to my understanding.
L440: “The lowest correlation” > “The smallest correlation”
L457: The nomenclature using parentheses to indicate summer data is confusing. Please split in two sentences if necessary.
L536: “to assess the uncertainty range of the correction method applied to the raw UVR data.” > “to correct and homogenise the time series of erythemal data”
L555: “of about” > “of only about” |