Abstract: The Taklimakan Desert is the largest desert in China. It is particular and typical in all the deserts in China. It affects strongly the climate and entironment in northwest China. Solar ultraviolet radiation including its ecological effect and climatology was observed in recent decades, so it is very important to understand UV radiation in the Taklimakan Desert. Taklimakan Station for Desert Atmospheric Environment Observation and Experiment (39°01′ N, 83°40′ E) is located in the hinterland of the Taklimakan Desert. In this paper, the characteristics of solar ultraviolet radiation, affecting factors and their relationships with meteorological factors at the station were analyzed using the data of solar ultraviolet radiation, solar global radiation and some meteorological factors, observed in the hinterland of the Taklimakan Desert during the period from Jane to December 2007. The result shows that the global UV radiation was 305.64 MJ/（m²•a). The maximum and minimum values of total monthly UV radiation occurred in July and December respectively. The peak value of instantaneous radiant intensity of UV radiation was 67.11 W/m² and occurred in June. There was a significant correlation between global radiation and UV radiation. The maximum (minimum) ratio of UV radiation to global radiation occurred in summer (winter). The effect of cloud cover and sand dust on UV radiation was significant. Compared with clear sky, UV radiation was reduced by 31.68% when the total cloud cover was ≥8, and it was reduced by 41.91% when a sandstorm occurred. Judged purely from the annual and daily variation, there were the significant correlations between UV radiation and air temperature and surface temperature, these correlations were stronger in summer than that in winter and stronger at noon than that in the morning or evening. Compared with temperature, there was a good correlation between UV radiation and surface temperature in summer. Water vapor did not directly absorb UV radiation, and there was no correlation between UV radiation and specific humidity except a weak correlation in winter. The factors affecting global radiation, including air temperature, surface temperature, visibility, cloud cover and specific humidity, were used to develop the prediction equations of estimating seasonal UV radiation. The factors used in the stepwise regression equation were different for different seasons. The test revealed that the stability and fitting results were good, and the equations can be used to estimate seasonal UV radiation.

Key words: ultraviolet radiation, meteorological factor, correlation analysis, cloudage, sandstorm, Taklimakan Desert