Outdoor Mean Radiant Temperature Estimation: Is the Black-Globe Thermometer Method a Feasible Course of Action?

Abstract

Urban planning has become one of the crucial action in order to address and mitigate the effect and the consequences of the global warming and it also entails different sectors of the urban context. The survey and control of the outdoor climatic conditions are among the involved sectors and mean radiant temperature is amid the most analyzed parameters. The aim of the paper is to investigate the effective suitability of one of the most used method in the assessment of the mean radiant temperature, namely the globe-thermometer method, in outdoor urban environment, singling out possible shortcomings and actual efficacy. Specifically, data obtained by measurement campaigns performed by means of a black-globe thermometer were compared with the ones resulted by the application of the six-directional technique based on the measure of the radiative fluxes (longwave and shortwave radiation) coming from six perpendicular space directions.