the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics

Abstract. In this study the variations in the surface ozone concentration, the solar ultraviolet radiation and the mete-orological parameters at the ground before, during and af-ter the total solar eclipse of 29 March 2006 have been ex-amined. This analysis is based on the measurements per-formed at four stations located in the greater Athens basin in Greece. The experimental data demonstrated that the solar eclipse phenomenon affects the surface ozone concentration as well as the temperature, the relative humidity and the wind speed near the ground. The decrease in the surface ozone concentration that observed after the beginning of the eclipse event lasted almost two hours, probably due to the decreased efficiency of the photochemical ozone formation. The re-duction of the solar ultraviolet radiation at 312 and 365 nm reached 97 % and 93 % respectively, while the air tempera-ture dropped, the relative humidity increased and the wind speed decreased.