Open AccessHistorical global gridded degree‐days: A high‐spatial resolution database of CDD and HDD
Author(s) -
Mistry Malcolm N.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
geoscience data journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.125
H-Index - 11
ISSN - 2049-6060
DOI - 10.1002/gdj3.83
Subject(s) - proxy (statistics) , environmental science , computer science , netcdf , image resolution , data assimilation , database , heating degree day , energy consumption , meteorology , geography , ecology , artificial intelligence , machine learning , biology , programming language
Abstract Cooling and heating degree‐days (CDD/HDD) are important metrics used in energy studies as a proxy for determining demand and consumption patterns of residential/commercial buildings and work spaces. Driven by the requirements of energy impact modellers, policymakers and building design experts; a new historical high‐spatial resolution, global gridded dataset of degree‐days constructed using various base (threshold) temperatures (T b ) is presented in this study. Derived using sub‐daily temperature from a quality‐controlled reanalysis data product (Global Land Data Assimilation System—GLDAS), the dataset called ‘ DegDays _0p25_1970_2018’ includes monthly and annual (i) CDD; (ii) HDD; and (iii) CDD computed using wet‐bulb temperature (CDD wb ) at 0.25° × 0.25° gridded resolution, covering 49 years over the period 1970–2018. The T b used for assembling DegDays _0p25_1970_2018 include 18, 18.3, 22, 23, 24, 25°C for CDD and CDD wb ; and 10, 15, 15.5, 16, 17 and 18°C for HDD, respectively. The data of individual indices are made publicly available in the commonly used scientific Network Common Data Form 4 (NetCDF4) and Georeferenced Tagged Image File (GeoTIFF) formats. DegDays _0p25_1970_2018 fills gaps in existing energy indicators’ datasets by being the only high‐resolution historical global gridded time series based on multiple threshold temperatures, thus offering applications in wide‐ranging climate zones and thermal comfort environments. The richness of DegDays _0p25_1970_2018 lies in its flexibility by allowing users to aggregate the degree‐days not only at varying spatial scales (such as administrative levels, national boundaries, economic organizations e.g. OECD; with or without population weights), but also at varying temporal scales (such as seasons), thereby offering climatologists with a potential to examine global teleconnection patterns more discretely.