Abstract
Reflectance of the urban surface is an important factor for urban climate studies and can be assessed using standard remote sensing applications. However, no application considers the three-dimensional structure of the city surface and its resulting shading patterns or the inclined roof surfaces. To determine the effect of these factors on the estimation of urban surface reflectance, a high-resolution raster-based city-surface model was used to estimate the spatial solar irradiance in an example city, namely Basel in Switzerland. Eight times daily for 1 year, the solar irradiance was calculated using MODTRAN and the illumination geometry of the city. Subsequently, the spatial distribution of the solar irradiance, as well as the error in assumed reflectance values were analysed. The error in estimation of reflectance increased with lower solar-elevation angle, so its maxima were found in winter. Higher visibility of the assumed atmosphere also increased the estimated error due to the lower proportion of diffuse irradiance. The error decreased with coarser spatial resolution of the pixel.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aida M (1982a) Urban albedo as a function of the urban structure: a model experiment. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 23(4):405–413
Aida M, Gotoh M (1982b) Urban albedo as a function of the urban structure: a two-dimensional numerical simulation. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 23:416–424
Berk A, Anderson GP, Bernstein LS, Acharya PK, Doethe H, Matthew MW, Adler-Golden SM, Chetwynd JH, Richtsmeister SC, Pukall B, Allred CL, Jeong LS, Hoke ML (1999) MODTRAN 4 radiative transfer modeling for atmospheric correction. SPIE Proceeding, Optical Spectroscopic Techniques and Instrumentation for Atmospheric and Space Research III, vol 3756, Denver CO, July 1999, SPIE, Bellingham, WA, USA, 6 pp
Brest CL (1987) Seasonal albedo of an urban/rural landscape from satellite observations. J Appl Meteorol 26(9):1169–187
Christen A, Vogt R (2004) Energy and radiation balance of a central European city. Int J Climatol 24:1395–1421
Chrysoulakis N (2003) Estimation of the all-wave urban surface radiation balance by use of ASTER multispectral imagery and in situ spatial data. J Geophys Res 108(D18):10
Chrysoulakis N, Diamandakis M, Prastacos P (2004) GIS based estimation and mapping of local level daily irradiation on inclined surfaces. In: Toppen F, Prastacos P (eds) Proceedings of the 7th AGILE Conference on Geographic Information Science, Crete, 2004, pp 587–597
Dozier J, Bruno J, Downey P (1981) A faster solution to the horizon problem. Comput Geosci 7:145–151
Erbs DG, Klein SA, Duffie JA (1982) Estimation of the diffuse radiation fraction for hourly, daily and monthly average global radiation. Sol Energ 28(4):293–304
Frey C, Rigo G, Parlow E (2007) Urban radiation balance of two coastal cities in a hot and dry environment. Int J Remote Sens 28(12):2695–2712
Hafner J, Kidder SQ (1999) Urban heat island modeling in conjunction with satellite-derived surface/soil parameters. J Appl Meteorol 38(4):448–465
Halthore RN, Schwartz SE (2000) Comparison of model-estimated and measured diffuse downward irradiance at surface in cloud-free skies. J Geophys Res 105(D15):20165–20177
Henzing JS, Knap WH, Stammes P, Apituley A, Bergwerff JB, Swart DPJ, Kos GPA, ten Brink HM (2004) Effect of aerosols on the downward shortwave irradiances at the surface: Measurements versus calculations with MODTRAN4.1. J Geophys Res 109(D14204)
Hofierka J, Šúri M (2002) The solar radiation model for Open source GIS: implementation and applications. In: Proceedings of the Open source GIS–GRASS users conference 2002, Trento, Italy, September 2002, pp 11–13
Iqbal M (1983) An introduction to solar radiation. Academic, New York
Kondo A, Ueno M, Kaga A, Yamaguchi K (2001) The influence of urban canopy configuration on urban albedo. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 100(2):225–242
Liu BYH, Jordan RC (1963) The long-term average performance of flatplate solar energy collectors. Sol Energ 7:53
Maxwell EL (1987) A quasi-physical model for converting hourly global horizontal to direct normal insolation. SERI (Solar Energy Research Institute), Golden, CO, USA
NASA (2007a) ASTER Surface Reflectance/ Radiance VNIR/SWIR Product. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA. http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/content/03_data/01_Data_Products/release_aster_surface_reflectance.htm. Cited 15 June 2007
NASA (2007b) Landsat 7 Science Data Users Handbook. NASA, Washington, DC. http://landsathandbook.gsfc.nasa.gov/handbook.html. Cited 15 June 2007
Parlow E (1996) Correction of terrain controlled illumination effects in satellite data. In: Parlow E (ed) Progress in environmental research and applications. Balkema, Rotterdam, pp 139–145
Parlow E (1998) Net radiation of urban areas. In: Gudmandsen P (ed) Future trends in remote sensing. Balkema, Rotterdam, pp 221–226
Rigo G, Parlow E (2007) Modelling the ground heat flux of an urban area using remote sensing data, Theor Appl Climatol 90:185-199
Rotach MW, Vogt R, Bernhofer C, Batchvarova E, Christen A, Clappier A, Feddersen B, Gryning S-E, Martucci G, Mayer H, Mitev V, Oke TR, Parlow E, Richner H, Roth M, Roulet YA, Ruffieux D, Salmond J, Schatzmann M, Voogt JA (2005) BUBBLE: an urban boundary layer meteorology project. Theor Appl Climatol 81:231–261
Sailor DJ (1995) Simulated urban response to modifications in surface albedo and vegetative cover. J Appl Meteorol 34:1694–1704
Sailor DJ, Fan H (2002) Modeling the diurnal variability of effective albedo for cities. Atmos Environ 36(4):713–725
Schläpfer D, Odermatt D (2006) MODO User Manual, Version 3. ReSe Applications, Wil, Switzerland
Schwander H, Mayer B, Ruggaber A, Albold A, Seckmeyer G, Koepke P (1999) Method to determine snow albedo values in the ultraviolet for radiative transfer modelling. Appl Opt 38:3869–3875
Small C (2005) A global analysis of urban reflectance. Int J Remote Sens 26(4):661–681
Soler MR, Ruiz C (1994) Urban albedo derived from direct measurements and Landsat 4 TM satellite data. Int J Climatol 14:925–931
Taha H (1997) Urban climates and heat islands: albedo, evapotranspiration, and anthropogenic heat. Energ Build 25(2):99–103
Acknowledgements
We thank the Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology (MeteoSwiss) for providing us the irradiation data of the stations Davos and Payerne, Switzerland. This research was conducted partly at ESA-ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands. The authors appreciate the kind support of Michael Berger. This project was funded by the Swiss Science Foundation with grant No. 200021-109472.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
An erratum to this article is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00704-011-0533-6.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Frey, C.M., Parlow, E. Geometry effect on the estimation of band reflectance in an urban area. Theor Appl Climatol 96, 395–406 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-008-0048-y
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-008-0048-y