Validation of UV-Index retrieved from three satellites against Ground-Based measurements at different climates in Egypt

Abstract

The UV Index is a useful tool to alert people with possible risks of exposure to solar UV radiation in Egypt. Ground UV-Index observation is a primary source to monitor solar UV levels, however the spatial coverage of the ground station is quite limited. The validation of available measurements were used frequently to define the possibility of using satellite data when measurements are not available, this was carried out for (leave area index and temperatures) for example (Ganguly et al., 2012) and (Laraby and Schott, 2018). In order to test the validity of the UV-index satellite products against ground observations, three satellite instruments (OMI, Terra + Aqua, and Terra + Npp) was performed at noontime in all sky conditions in the period 2012–2017 at three sites; Aswan, Cairo, and Matruh. The aforementioned sites were selected to represent different climates in Egypt. Annual intercomparison highlighted higher relative bias (rbias) at OMI (6.4 %) than both Terra + Aqua (2.3%) and Terra + Npp (2.8%). Also, Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE), shows that OMI (10.6%) is relatively higher than both Terra + Aqua and Terra + Npp. (8.5 %). Based on these results, both Terra + Aqua and Terra + Npp have a better performance with respect to ground observations than OMI. This was due to OMI being more sensitive to dust and cloud than, Terra + Aqua and Terra + Npp.