A Study of Climatic Variables Atmospheric Elements and Standard Skies and the Implications to Building Energy, Comfort and Health Issues

Description

In 2003, the International Commission on Illumination (CIE) adopted a range of 15 standard skies that covers the whole spectrum of usual skies found in nature. Sky patterns of the same category have similar solar radiance and luminance distributions, and the other climatic parameters and atmospheric elements would be within certain ranges. Analyses can help the identification of sky patterns so that complicated mathematical expressions to model the sky distributions are not required. Once the skies have been identified, the basic solar energy data such as solar irradiance and outdoor illuminance at any surface of interest, and atmospheric elements including aerosols, pollutants, and other weather variables, can be obtained for subsequent investigations. This project will examine the long-term and typical year weather variables, atmospheric elements, and microclimate conditions. Thermal environments, air qualities, and building energy uses will be evaluated. The techniques developed will have extensive implications on the correlations among comfort, energy, and health issues in urban built environments.