An official website of the United States government
Surface temperature measurements with naturally ventilated (NV) sensors over the Antarctic Plateau are largely subject to systematic errors caused by solar radiative heating. Here we examined the radiative heating error in Dronning Maud Land on the East Antarctic Plateau using both the newly installed automatic weather stations (AWSs) at NDF and Relay Station and the existing AWSs at Relay Station and Dome Fuji. Two types of NV shields were used in these AWSs: a multiplate radiation shield and a simple cylinder-shaped shield. In austral summer, the temperature bias between the force-ventilated (FV) sensor and the NV sensor never reached zero because of continuous sunlight. The hourly mean temperature errors reached up to 8°C at noon on a sunny day with weak wind conditions. The errors increased linearly with increasing reflected shortwave radiation and decreased nonlinearly with increasing wind speed. These features were observed in both the multiplate and the cylinder-shaped shields. The magnitude of the errors of the multiplate shield was much larger than that of the cylinder-shaped shield. To quantify the radiative errors, we applied an existing correction model based on the regression approach and successfully reduced the errors by more than 70% after the correction. This indicates that we can use the corrected temperature data instead of quality controlled data, which removed warm bias during weak winds in inland Dronning Maud Land.
more »
« less
This content will become publicly available on February 1, 2026
Design and Evaluation of Wearable Solar Radiation Shields for Enhanced Personal Heat Exposure Monitoring
Extreme heat is one of the main climate-induced public health risks to communities around the world. Understanding an individual’s vulnerability to heat is challenging, as heat exposures vary significantly depending on occupation, travel behaviors, personal activities, and the surrounding urban environment. Previous validation studies have found that commonly used wearable temperature sensors are less reliable in highly urbanized areas and when worn in direct sunlight. The aim of our study is to investigate the potential to improve the reliability of wearable temperature sensors commonly used in personal heat exposure studies. To accomplish this aim, we designed and rapidly prototyped a set of solar radiations shields to decrease temperature bias when worn in direct sunlight and in areas of high impervious surfaces. In a field deployment, we tested four different form factors for solar radiation shields, which were specifically designed to house the iButton sensor and to be worn on-body. Initial results have shown that these wearable solar radiation shields can improve sensor reliability by decreasing temperature bias by 3 °F on average. These findings highlight the potential for wearable radiation shields to enhance personal heat exposure measurements in urban environments.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 1850269
- PAR ID:
- 10658120
- Publisher / Repository:
- MDPI
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Sensors
- Volume:
- 25
- Issue:
- 3
- ISSN:
- 1424-8220
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 945
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
Radiative cooling textiles hold promise for achieving personal thermal comfort under increasing global temperature. However, urban areas have heat island effects that largely diminish the effectiveness of cooling textiles as wearable fabrics because they absorb emitted radiation from the ground and nearby buildings. We developed a mid-infrared spectrally selective hierarchical fabric (SSHF) with emissivity greatly dominant in the atmospheric transmission window through molecular design, minimizing the net heat gain from the surroundings. The SSHF features a high solar spectrum reflectivity of 0.97 owing to strong Mie scattering from the nano-micro hybrid fibrous structure. The SSHF is 2.3°C cooler than a solar-reflecting broadband emitter when placed vertically in simulated outdoor urban scenarios during the day and also has excellent wearable properties.more » « less
-
Abstract Building cooling loads are driven by heat gains through enclosures. This research identifies possible ways of reducing the building cooling loads through vegetative shading. Vegetative shading reduces heat gains by blocking radiation and by evaporative air cooling. Few measured data exist, so we gathered thermal data from a vegetative wall grown in front of a Mobile Diagnostics Lab (MDL), a trailer with one conditioned room with instrumentation that collects thermal data from heat flux sensors and thermistors within its walls. In spring 2020 a variety of plants were cultivated in a greenhouse and planted in front of the south façade of the MDL, which was placed in direct sunlight to collect heat flux data. The plants acted as a barrier for solar radiation and reduced the amount of thermal energy affecting the trailer surface. Data were collected through the use of 16 heat flux sensors and development of continuous infrared (IR) images indicating surface temperature with and without plant cover. The façade surface beneath the plants was 10-30 °C cooler than exposed façade areas. In further analyses, the heat-flux data were compared to IR temperature data.more » « less
-
Air temperature is measured at seven locations in rain gage clearings throughout the experimental watersheds and at Headquarters. The oldest air temperature record dates back to October 20,1955 at Station 1. From 1955 - 2014, temperature measurements were made continuously using hygrothermographs housed in standard shelters. Beginning in 2014, digital sensors housed in solar radiation shields collected daily minimum and maximum temperature measurements. Measurements made by the hygrothermographs have been corrected for screen bias to match the current aspirated radiation shields. These data are gathered at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in Woodstock, NH, which is operated and maintained by the USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station.more » « less
-
Air temperature is measured at seven locations in rain gauge clearings throughout the experimental watersheds and at Headquarters. The oldest air temperature record dates back to October 20,1955 at Station 1. From 1955 - 2014, temperature measurements were made continuously using hygrothermographs housed in standard shelters. Beginning in 2014, digital sensors housed in solar radiation shields collected daily minimum and maximum temperature measurements. Measurements made by the hygrothermographs have been corrected for screen bias to match the current aspirated radiation shields. These data are gathered at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in Woodstock, NH, which is operated and maintained by the USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station.more » « less
