Re: Yellow tents and UV (was: outdoor gum demo)
I don't understand this at all; does the sun change it's irradiation spectrum (in terms of UVB, UVA, visible and infra-red) through "our" year? I don't think so, therefore it's total nonsense to assert (and believe) "UVA is present with equal intensity during all daylight hours and that it doesn't vary with season". That would mean that in winter (where we are farther away from sun) the proportion of UVA in sunlight should have to increase actually whereas the proportion of UVB, visible light and infra-red light all should decrease, as shown with the facts that we don't get sunburnt in the winter (except some extreme conditions such as high altitude/mountains and highly UV reflecting soil/snow) (UVB), winter sun is paler (visible), and winter temperatures are lower (infra-red)??? How come the sun knows that it should act that way -> according to our year/seasons? ;) I thought to use the UV index for sun exposures, because I was thinking UVB and UVA levels are closely related (given there's the same amnt. of ozone above and the sky is clear) because the irradiation spectrum of the sun is relatively constant (again in terms of UVB, UVA, visible and infra-red). I still hold that idea... 21 Nisan 2009, Salı, 8:02 pm tarihinde, Katharine Thayer yazmış: > > ... > > First a comment about the last paragraph: Here you're conflating > UVB and UVA. The rays that cause sunburn are UVB, wavelengths > 280-320. Those rays don't go through glass or any deeper than the > epidermis of the skin, and are of little concern for gum printers. > UVA (320-400) is the range we're interested in. UVA is of less > concern for sunburn, passes through glass and through the skin deeper > into the body, and contains the wavelengths we use to print gum. So > it's something of a logical leap to assume that any observation > related to sunburn might also relate to the fogging of gum emulsions. > > ... > > One last thing: while I was doing this search, I found the answer to > a question that's puzzled me for years. Conventional wisdom shared > among alternative process workers, at least as I've seen it given on > this list, that UV varies depending on time of day, season, > location. So it's always puzzled me that on the northwest coast of > the US, an area not noted for its high UV levels to start with, I > could expose a gum print in the sun in less than a minute, same time > in summer or in winter. That didn't make sense to me, until this > weekend when I learned from a skin cancer foundation site that it's > just UVB, the kind that's not useful for gum printing, that varies by > season, location and time of day. UVA, the UV we're interested in, > is "present with equal intensity during all daylight hours throughout > the year."
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