Experimental correspondence between spore dosimetry and spectral photometry of solar ultraviolet radiation

The biologically effective dose of solar UV radiation was estimated from the inactivation of UV-sensitive Bacillus subtilis spores. Two types of independent measurements were carried out concurrently at the Aerological Observatory in Tsukuba: one was the direct measurement of colony-forming survival that provided the inactivation dose per minute (ID/min) and the other was the measurement of the spectral irradiance by a Brewer spectrophotometer. To obtain the effective spectrum, the irradiance for each 1 nm wavelength interval from 290 to 400 nm was multiplied with the efficiency for inactivation derived from the inactivation action spectrum of identically prepared spore samples. Integration of the effective spectrum provided the estimate for ID/min. The observed values of ID/min were closely concordant with the calculated values for the data obtained in four afternoons in 1993. The average ratio (+/-SD) between them was 1.24 (+/-0.16) for 14 data points showing high inactivation rates (>0.05 ID/min). Considering difficulties in the absolute dosimetry of UV radiation, the concordance was satisfactory and improved credibility of the two types of monitoring systems of biologically effective dose of solar UV radiation.