The weather where I live has been fairly consistent, yet the UV index will be 2 one day and 8 the next with no drastic changes in weather/cloud cover.
Does this have to do with the sun spitting out solar storms?
In: Planetary Science
There is still cloud cover, just really high up. Also invisible or mostly invisible particulates like moisture, dust, pollution, pollen which can absorb UV but either not absorb visible light or not enough to be very noticeable. Ozone is a big contributor. Ozone is a colorless gas made of three oxygen atoms stuck together. It is a strong absorber of UV, but it’s also very unstable. It’s made *by* UV striking O2 in the upper atmosphere, and some is made closer to the surface by lightning ionizing the air.
The level of ozone changes as the winds in the upper atmosphere blows it away or blows it in or there’s a huge storm that makes a lot and then a current picks it up and brings it to you or there’s just a lot of ozone already so it blocks UV so less ozone is made so there’s not much so a lot of UV gets through so more ozone is made….
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