Mapping Radiative Cooling Potential Predictions for Africa
Abstract
Radiative cooling (RC) is a passive cooling technology which enables to cool down surfaces by rejecting radiation to outer space. The potential of this phenomenon depends on different parameters of the local weather conditions and the degree of pollution. Africa is a continent with most of its land within the tropics, so cooling needs are in general high along the year and radiative cooling can play an important role for covering them in a renewable way. A powerful spatial interpolation method, known as Kriging, has been used to estimate values at unknown points of Africa and thus create continuous maps of radiative cooling potential (q_c). Results show mean annual values of cooling potential of 77.64 W/m2 and peak values of 135.80 W/m2 in the desert. Observing the resulting maps, the higher the temperature and the lower the relative humidity, the higher the cooling potential.