It has been demonstrated that certain atmospheric conditions, such as the increased presence of haze, can act to offset the decrease in ozone by lengthening the pathlength of the radiation through the atmosphere, thus increasing UV-B absorption.
Clouds are another factor influencing the levels of ultraviolet reaching the surface.
The unprotected eye is also susceptible to the negative effects of the radiation. There is growing evidence that there exists a correlation between eye exposure to UV-B radiation and the formation of certain types of cataracts. While some attempts have been made at estimating the actual amount of radiation reaching the eye, there appears to be a need to model this quantity for a range of atmospheric conditions. In the first part of the work a mapping technique which produces hemispheric distributions of upwelling and downwelling UV-B radiance is presented. The maps are presented in the form of polar contour plots, which give a visual representation of the diffuse UV-B radiance field.