Impact of building density on natural ventilation potential and cooling energy saving across Chinese climate zones

Natural ventilation is an energy-efficient approach to reduce the need for mechanical ventilation and air conditioning in buildings. However, traditionally weather data for building energy simulation are obtained from rural areas, which do not reflect the urban micrometeorological conditions. This study combines the Surface Urban Energy and Water Balance Scheme (SUEWS) and EnergyPlus to predict natural ventilation potential (NVP) and cooling energy saving in three idealised urban neighbourhoods with different urban densities in five Chinese cities of different climate zones. SUEWS downscales the meteorological inputs required by EnergyPlus, including air temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed profiles. The findings indicate that NVP and cooling energy saving differences between urban and rural areas are climate- and season-dependent. During summer, the urban-rural differences in natural ventilation hours are −43%–10% (cf. rural) across all climates, while in spring/autumn, they range from −7% to 36%. The study also suggests that single-sided ventilation can be as effective as cross ventilation for buildings in dense urban areas. Our findings highlight the importance of considering local or neighbourhood-scale climate when evaluating NVP. We demonstrate a method to enhance NVP prediction accuracy in urban regions using EnergyPlus, which can contribute to achieving low-carbon building design

Assess Calibration Consistency of MODIS and AVHRR Thermal Infrared Bands Using SNO Observations Corrected for Atmospheric Effects

Monitoring environmental changes from space requires extremely well-calibrated observations to achieve the necessary high accuracy and stability. The calibration differences between the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) thermal bands provide a valuable quality assessment of the instrument performance. This letter compares the calibration differences between the Aqua MODIS and NOAA-18 AVHRR bands at 11.0 and 12.0 /Lm using simultaneous nadir overpass observations obtained in nearly parallel orbits. Impacts due to the relative spectral-response differences between the two sensors are estimated by MODTRAN simulations with real-time atmospheric profiles of temperature, water vapor, atmospheric pressure and ozone, and surface skin temperatures. Results show that the temperature difference after the removal of atmospheric impacts is within 0.30 K (or 0.40% in radiance) across the effective calibration range (or the 1l.0 l'm band/channel. For the 12.0 pm band, the differences are OAO K (or 0.50%) at the typical radiance and up to 0.70 K (or 0.90%) close to the maximum radiance, indicating an excellent calibration consistency between MODIS and AVHRR for both bands

Leaching resistance of hazardous waste cement solidification after accelerated carbonation

When cement-based materials are carbonated, some of their physicochemical properties are changed, which includes reductions of porosity by 20% and pH from 12-13 to 8–9. These changes can enhance the retention ability of cementitious solids containing hazard waste. This research studied the effect of carbonation on the leaching resistance of hazardous waste cement solidification. The finite element software COMSOL Multiphysics was used to simulate the process of accelerated carbonation and the effect of carbonation on leaching. Laboratory tests were conducted to validate the numerical models. Parametric studies from the numerical simulations revealed that carbonation could significantly improve leaching retention capabilities of cementitious solids containing hazardous wastes

On-Orbit Calibration and Performance of Aqua MODIS Reflective Solar Bands

Aqua MODIS has successfully operated on-orbit for more than 6 years since its launch in May 2002, continuously making global observations and improving studies of changes in the Earth's climate and environment. 20 of the 36 MODIS spectral bands, covering wavelengths from 0.41 to 2.2 microns, are the reflective solar bands (RSB). They are calibrated on-orbit using an on-board solar diffuser (SD) and a solar diffuser stability monitor (SDSM). In addition, regularly scheduled lunar observations are made to track the RSB calibration stability. This paper presents Aqua MODIS RSB on-orbit calibration and characterization activities, methodologies, and performance. Included in this study are characterizations of detector signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), short-term stability, and long-term response change. Spectral wavelength dependent degradation of the SD bidirectional reflectance factor (BRF) and scan mirror reflectance, which also varies with angle of incidence (AOI), are examined. On-orbit results show that Aqua MODIS onboard calibrators have performed well, enabling accurate calibration coefficients to be derived and updated for the Level 1B (L1B) production and assuring high quality science data products to be continuously generated and distributed. Since launch, the short-term response, on a scan-by-scan basis, has remained extremely stable for most RSB detectors. With the exception of band 6, there have been no new RSB noisy or inoperable detectors. Like its predecessor, Terra MODIS, launched in December 1999, the Aqua MODIS visible (VIS) spectral bands have experienced relatively large changes, with an annual response decrease (mirror side 1) of 3.6% for band 8 at 0.412 microns, 2.3% for band 9 at 0.443 microns, 1.6% for band 3 at 0.469 microns, and 1.2% for band 10 at 0.488 microns. For other RSB bands with wavelengths greater than 0.5 microns, the annual response changes are typically less than 0.5%. In general, Aqua MODIS optics degradation is smaller than Terra MODIS and the mirror side differences are much smaller. Overall, Aqua MODIS RSB on-orbit performance is better than Terra MODIS

Use of wind pressure coefficients to simulate natural ventilation and building energy for isolated and surrounded buildings

Wind pressure coefficients (Cp) are critical inputs to building energy simulations. Given differences in the free stream wind speed height two categories exist: (1) Cpr (reference height) and (2) Cpl (local opening height). Additionally, Cp data are influenced by the vertical wind profile which is modified by surrounding buildings. However, these dependencies are often overlooked in building energy simulations (BES). We identified three potential biases from the incorrect use of Cp: (1) Cpr is used alongside the wind speed at opening height rather than reference height (where Cpr is defined); (2) Cpr is used with wind profiles that are different from the wind tunnel experiment or CFD simulation used to derive Cpr; and, (3) Cp is used along with the ‘disturbed’ urbanised wind speed instead of the ‘undisturbed’ free stream wind speed. In this study, we quantify the resulting biases from using Cp data incorrectly by assessing impacts on the resulting ventilation rate, indoor overheating risks and cooling energy saving with EnergyPlus for Shanghai's climate. Modifications to the use of Cp are proposed to improve simulation accuracy. Results show biases mostly exceeding the ±10% limit of ASHRAE-14 in all scenarios analysed. Differences are up to −19.0% for natural ventilation rate, 13.2% for indoor overheating degree hours and −14.0% for cooling energy saving, with such errors being larger during heatwave periods. Our study could provide useful guidance for researchers to carry out wind-driven natural ventilation study and estimate indoor overheating risk and energy consumption with better accuracy

Impact of building density on natural ventilation potential and cooling energy saving across Chinese climate zones

Natural ventilation is an energy-efficient approach to reduce the need for mechanical ventilation and air conditioning in buildings. However, traditionally weather data for building energy simulation are obtained from rural areas, which do not reflect the urban micrometeorological conditions. This study combines the Surface Urban Energy and Water Balance Scheme (SUEWS) and EnergyPlus to predict natural ventilation potential (NVP) and cooling energy saving in three idealised urban neighbourhoods with different urban densities in five Chinese cities of different climate zones. SUEWS downscales the meteorological inputs required by EnergyPlus, including air temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed profiles. The findings indicate that NVP and cooling energy saving differences between urban and rural areas are climate- and season-dependent. During summer, the urban-rural differences in natural ventilation hours are −43%–10% (cf. rural) across all climates, while in spring/autumn, they range from −7% to 36%. The study also suggests that single-sided ventilation can be as effective as cross ventilation for buildings in dense urban areas. Our findings highlight the importance of considering local or neighbourhood-scale climate when evaluating NVP. We demonstrate a method to enhance NVP prediction accuracy in urban regions using EnergyPlus, which can contribute to achieving low-carbon building design

Impact of neighbourhood-scale climate characteristics on building heating demand and night ventilation cooling potential

As buildings are main contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, it is important to assess the performance of existing buildings and assist the design of new sustainable buildings through building energy simulation. It is well known that by using local climate measurements for building energy simulation would provide more accurate result than by using other typical weather data, i.e. typical meteorological year (TMY). However, as different built forms/architectural layouts would also have impacts on neighbourhood-scale microclimate, it is worthy to quantify the difference it would make. In this study, we performed a year-long measurement with four weather stations surrounding a campus building in 2009 and 2010. Each station was placed in a typical type of built form, including a street canyon, a courtyard, a semi-closed courtyard and a relatively larger open area. Besides, two typical weather data files, typical meteorological year (TMY) and actual meteorological year (AMY) were taken as reference. Annual heating demand and natural ventilation cooling potential were calculated based on all 6 weather files. Our simulation results show that the variation in annual heating demand of different built forms could be between 1.1 - 7.3%, where the large open area has the highest heating demand and it of the courtyard is the lowest. The difference between on-site measurement and TMY in annual heating load is as high as 10.8%. While in summer, night ventilation cooling potential of the courtyard and the semi-closed form are the highest, and it of the street canyon is the lowest. Using TMY could underestimate the night ventilation cooling potential by 26 – 31% and using AMY could overestimate it by 9 – 14% in total. Overall speaking, the courtyard form shows good performance in reducing heating demand and enhancing night ventilation cooling, while the street canyon shows relatively poor performance in both aspects. These findings highlight the importance to understand the impact of neighbourhood-scale microclimate on building energy performance

MODIS on-orbit spatial characterization results using ground measurements

Abstract MODerate resolution Imaging Spectro-radiometer (MODIS), as part of NASA's Earth Observe System (EOS) mission, is widely utilized in diversified scientific research areas. Both Terra and Aqua MODIS observe the earth in sun-synchronous orbit at three nadir spatial resolutions. MODIS has thirty-six bands that are located in four Focal Plane Assembles (FPAs) by wavelength: Visible (VIS), Near-Infrared (NIR), Short-and Middle-wavelength IR (SMIR), and Long wavelength IR (LWIR). MODIS Band-to-Band Registration (BBR) was measured pre-launch at the instrument vendor. Mis-registration exists between bands and FPAs. The spatial characterization could change in storage, at launch, and years on-orbit. In this study, a special ground scene with unique features has been selected as our study area to calculate the spatial registration in both along-scan and along-track for bands 2 -7 relative to band 1. The results from the earth scene targets have been compared with on-board calibrator, the Spectro-Radiometric Calibration Assembly (SRCA), with good agreement. The measured differences between the SRCA and our ground scene approach are less than 20m on average for VIS/NIR bands both along-scan and along-track. The differences for SMIR bands are 20m along-scan and 0.1 -0.18 km for along track. The SMIR FPA crosstalk could be a contributor to the difference. For Aqua MODIS instruments, the spatial deviation is very small between the bands located on the same FPA or between VIS and NIR FPAs but is relatively large between warm (VIS and NIR) and cold (SMIR and LWIR) FPAs. The spatial deviation for MODIS/Terra can be ignorable but not for MODIS/Aqua. The results from this study show that the spatial deviation of Aqua MODIS may impact on the science data when multi-band data from both warm and cold FPAs is combined