Effects of humidity, aerosol, and cloud on subambient radiative cooling

•Effects by humidity, aerosol, and cloud on radiative cooling are modeled.•Vertical variations of temperature and water vapor concentration are considered.•Design strategies of radiative coolers in different climates are discussed.•Potential of applying radiative cooling in different regions is mapp...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of heat and mass transfer 2022-05, Vol.186, p.122438, Article 122438
Main Authors: Huang, Jingyuan, Lin, Chongjia, Li, Yang, Huang, Baoling
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aerosol effect
Aerosols
Atmospheric models
Atmospheric windows
Cloud coverage
Clouds
Coolers
Cooling
Geographical locations
Humidity
Mathematical models
Parameters
Radiative cooling
Radiators
Temperature
Thermal radiation
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:•Effects by humidity, aerosol, and cloud on radiative cooling are modeled.•Vertical variations of temperature and water vapor concentration are considered.•Design strategies of radiative coolers in different climates are discussed.•Potential of applying radiative cooling in different regions is mapped. Passive radiative cooling provides an eco-friendly solution for space cooling by spontaneously emitting thermal radiation to the cold higher sky through the atmospheric windows. The cooling performance of a radiative cooler is influenced by various environmental factors such as humidity, aerosol level, and cloud coverage, of which a comprehensive understanding is yet to be developed. Herein, we propose a theoretical model, which only requires the input of ground-level atmospheric parameters, to quantitatively evaluate the effects of different environmental factors on a radiator. Particularly, the vertical variations of both vapor concentration and temperature in the atmosphere, which are often missed in previous models, are found to remarkably influence the radiative cooling performance. Moreover, both aerosol scattering and cloud coverage can largely weaken the cooling performance while both are closely correlated to the humidity. The design strategies of radiative coolers in different climates are then explored. Based on the various environmental parameters relevant to the geographic locations, the potential of applying the spectrally selective radiative cooling technology in different regions is also evaluated and mapped. [Display omitted]
ISSN:0017-9310
1879-2189
DOI:10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2021.122438