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Introduction

The NOAA/National Weather Service (NWS) has been issuing a next day UV Index forecast for locations within the United States since the summer of 1994. The UV Index forecast incorporates satellite observations of the earth's ozone field, a radiative transfer model, and atmospheric parameters from a numerical weather forecast model. As with all other NWS forecast products, the UV Index must be validated. At nearly the same time, several U.S. governmental agencies have established surface ultraviolet radiation observation networks. The UV Index forecasts are validated against these observations.

In addition to providing validation information to the NWS, this process is unique in that it combines all of the different networks' observations and compares them against an independent source. In the past, this has lead to uncovering calibration and characterization problems with specific instruments and an entire brand of instrument. Subsequently, these calibration and characterization issues have been addressed and correction values are made available to the user community.

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