Relative Response to Ultraviolet Sunlight

The relative response to erythemal sun-burning radiation (McKenzie et al., 2011, Fig. 6) shown as a function of wavelength for skin (red), previtamin D3 (dashed red), DNA (black), plants (green), bleaching of dissolved organic matter (DOM) (dashed black), open-ocean photoproduction of carbon monoxide (CO) (blue), copepod mortality (dashed blue), and secondary organic aerosols (yellow). Note how the sensitivity increases rapidly as the wavelength decreases from 320 to 300 nm. Note that the action spectra for bleaching of dissolved organic matter (DOM) and secondary organic aerosols have been scaled by 1/50 and 50, respectively, to bring their normalisation at 300 nm close to unity.