Possibilities to estimate the personal UV radiation exposure from ambient UV radiation measurements

People are exposed to solar ultraviolet radiation (UVR) throughout their entire lives. Exposure to UVR is vital but also holds serious risks. The quantification of human UVR exposure is a complex issue. Personal UVR exposure is related to ambient UVR, as well as to a variety of factors such as the orientation of the exposed anatomical site in respect to the sun and the duration of exposure. This is mainly determined by behaviour. A variety of efforts have been undertaken in the past to measure or model the personal UVR exposure of people and often personal UVR exposure was expressed as percentage of ambient UVR. On the other hand, ambient UVR is being monitored at a variety of places and measurements are available even online. From this, it suggests itself to bring both together, the knowledge of personal UVR exposure and measurements of ambient UVR. In this paper, a summary on the different methods is given, which can use ambient UVR measurements to estimate personal UVR exposure of people as well as a few examples. Advantages and disadvantages will be discussed as well as possibilities and limitations. This includes also an overview of appropriate terminology, units and basic statistic parameters to describe personal UVR exposure.