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Uncertainty of experimental integrals: application to the UV index calculation

Raul R Cordero1,2, Gunther Seckmeyer1, Darius Pissulla1 and Fernando Labbe3

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A procedure is presented to evaluate the uncertainty of integrals computed from an approximate function that interpolates a set of measured data. The procedure, a Monte Carlo-based uncertainty propagation technique, yields the integral uncertainty taking into account the uncertainties associated with the involved experimental data. As expected, we found that the uncertainty of the integral strongly depends on the error sources affecting the ordinates. As an example, we assessed the uncertainty of the so-called UV index, evaluated by integrating in the range 250 nm to 400 nm the biologically weighted spectral ultraviolet irradiance. The presented procedure agrees with international recommendations and is valid independently of the experimental technique from which data are obtained.


PACS

87.50.W- Optical/infrared radiation effects

02.60.Ed Interpolation; curve fitting

06.20.Dk Measurement and error theory

Subjects

Computational physics

Instrumentation and measurement

Medical physics

Biological physics

Dates

Issue 1 (February 2008)

Received 3 April 2007

Published 18 December 2007



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