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Downscaling NASA Climatological Data to Produce Detailed Climate Zone MapsThe design of energy efficient sustainable buildings is heavily dependent on accurate long-term and near real-time local weather data. To varying degrees the current meteorological networks over the globe have been used to provide these data albeit often from sites far removed from the desired location. The national need is for access to weather and solar resource data accurate enough to use to develop preliminary building designs within a short proposal time limit, usually within 60 days. The NASA Prediction Of Worldwide Energy Resource (POWER) project was established by NASA to provide industry friendly access to globally distributed solar and meteorological data. As a result, the POWER web site (power.larc.nasa.gov) now provides global information on many renewable energy parameters and several buildings-related items but at a relatively coarse resolution. This paper describes a method of downscaling NASA atmospheric assimilation model results to higher resolution and maps those parameters to produce building climate zone maps using estimates of temperature and precipitation. The distribution of climate zones for North America with an emphasis on the Pacific Northwest for just one year shows very good correspondence to the currently defined distribution. The method has the potential to provide a consistent procedure for deriving climate zone information on a global basis that can be assessed for variability and updated more regularly.
Document ID
20110011613
Acquisition Source
Langley Research Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Chandler, William S. (Science Systems and Applications, Inc. Hampton, VA, United States)
Hoell, James M. (Science Systems and Applications, Inc. Hampton, VA, United States)
Westberg, David J. (Science Systems and Applications, Inc. Hampton, VA, United States)
Whitlock, Charles H. (Science Systems and Applications, Inc. Hampton, VA, United States)
Zhang, Taiping (Science Systems and Applications, Inc. Hampton, VA, United States)
Stackhouse, P. W. (NASA Langley Research Center Hampton, VA, United States)
Date Acquired
August 25, 2013
Publication Date
May 17, 2011
Subject Category
Meteorology And Climatology
Report/Patent Number
NF1676L-12438
Paper No. 02808
Meeting Information
Meeting: American Solar Energy Society National Solar Conference 2011
Location: Raleigh, NC
Country: United States
Start Date: May 17, 2011
End Date: May 21, 2011
Funding Number(s)
WBS: WBS 389018.02.15.04.80
CONTRACT_GRANT: NNH08ZDA001N
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Public Use Permitted.

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