Exobiology at Southern Brazil: Spore Dosimetry and the UV Solar Radiation

摘要

The ultraviolet - UV is considered the range of solar radiation most immediately lethal to the life organisms on the Earth's surface. In this context, since 2000, the monitoring of the biologically-effective solar radiation using spore dosimeter at the Southern Space Observatory (29.4S, 53.8W), South of Brazil, has been performed. The biological dosimeter is based in the spore inactivation doses of Bacillus subtilis strain TKJ6312, who is sensitive to the UV solar radiation. Monthly expositions of biological dosimeter have been compared with solar irradiance obtained by Brewer spectrophotometer. Corre-lations indices about r > 0.86 shows the potential applicability of the biosensor in the monitoring of biologically-effective solar radiation. Since spores are sta-bile microorganisms, considering extreme environment variations, the biosensor may be used for studies of the effects of the solar radiation in others planetary environments for future work.