Temporal and spatial variability of total ozone content over Central Europe: analysis in respect to the biological effect on plants

The temporal and spatial variability of the total ozone content (TOC) is examined in respect to the biologically effective ultraviolet radiation on plants. TOC data from 1996 to 2000 over the domain of Central Europe were used. Variability is analysed using correlation and auto-correlation coefficients. The temporal auto-correlation analyses has shown that the only periodicity which could be found was a period of 1 year. The comparison between spatial correlation and the temporal auto-correlation delivers an equivalent value of zero for a distance between 400 and 500 km and at a time lag of 5 days. The influence of temporal and spatial variability of TOC on the biologically effective ultraviolet radiation was quantified by model calculations using action spectra of the DNA-damage and the generalised plant damage (GPD). These were undertaken for a certain location using TOC with various temporal delays or made at other locations with certain distances. The results show that the relative sensitiveness to spatial lags in TOC differs by a factor of three during the year with minimum in August and maximum around December. For temporal lags the sensitiveness changes by a factor of six between August and December.