Mean radiant temperature from global-scale numerical weather prediction models

In human biometeorology, the estimation of mean radiant temperature (MRT) is generally considered challenging. This work presents a general framework to compute the MRT at the global scale for a human subject placed in an outdoor environment and irradiated by solar and thermal radiation both directl...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inInternational journal of biometeorology Vol. 64; no. 7; pp. 1233 - 1245
Main Authors Di Napoli, Claudia, Hogan, Robin J., Pappenberger, Florian
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.07.2020
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Animal Physiology
bioclimatology
Biological and Medical Physics
Biometeorology
Biophysics
Computation
Earth and Environmental Science
Environment
Environmental Health
Environmental monitoring
Fluxes
Human biometeorology
humans
Meteorological satellites
Meteorology
Numerical weather forecasting
Original Paper
Plant Physiology
Prediction models
Radiation
Radiation data
Radiation measurement
Radiation monitoring
temperature
Thermal radiation
Weather forecasting
Validation
Mean radiant temperature
Numerical weather prediction
Radiation
Human comfort
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:In human biometeorology, the estimation of mean radiant temperature (MRT) is generally considered challenging. This work presents a general framework to compute the MRT at the global scale for a human subject placed in an outdoor environment and irradiated by solar and thermal radiation both directly and diffusely. The proposed framework requires as input radiation fluxes computed by numerical weather prediction (NWP) models and generates as output gridded globe-wide maps of MRT. It also considers changes in the Sun’s position affecting radiation components when these are stored by NWP models as an accumulated-over-time quantity. The applicability of the framework was demonstrated using NWP reanalysis radiation data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. Mapped distributions of MRT were correspondingly computed at the global scale. Comparison against measurements from radiation monitoring stations showed a good agreement with NWP-based MRT (coefficient of determination greater than 0.88; average bias equal to 0.42 °C) suggesting its potential as a proxy for observations in application studies.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 14
content type line 23
ISSN:0020-7128
1432-1254
1432-1254
DOI:10.1007/s00484-020-01900-5