Roof Albedo Map Los Angeles

Albedo is the fraction of sunlight that is reflected from a surface.

Roof albedo map los angeles.

In nature white sea ice melting into the dark blue ocean in cities formerly green enviroments being covered with pavement and skyscrapers with black rooftops in cities the earth is slowly being covered. Albedo is the reflecting power of a surface. Los angeles for example recently implemented an ordinance that requires all new or refurbished residential buildings to be equipped with cool roofs. White roofs could be painted on every roof in the city in order to immensely increase the overall albedo of the region.

The potential dividends of the ordinance are illustrated by the swaths of red and orange roofs indicating low albedo roofs in the los angeles portion of the map. The area weighted mean roof albedo standard deviation for each city ranges from 0 17 0 08 los angeles to 0 20 0 11 bakersfield. The data is provided by calfire. Fire origins mark the fire fighter s best guess of where the fire started.

In each city nearly all roofs have low albedo in the range of 0 05 0 25 panel b fig. Berkeley lab scientists use aerial imagery to create an interactive map that displays the solar reflectance also known as albedo of individual roofs in bakersfield long beach los angeles san francisco and san jose. It is measured on a scale of 0 to 1 where higher numbers indicate greater reflectance. We are at the forefront of cutting edge research that redefines building technology and explores all areas of urban systems.

For our study we will use images taken of california in 2009 by the national agriculture. Reflective roofs are more energy efficient and cooler inside and out. This map displays roof albedo solar reflectance estimates from berkeley lab for los angeles. We have been leaders for decades in developing energy efficient windows improving indoor air quality coming up with new ideas to fix the nation s electricity grid and so much more.

Find local businesses view maps and get driving directions in google maps. Similar to the concept of increasing the albedo of city pavements white roofs have the potential to cool the atmosphere of los angeles by reflecting more sunlight back into space instead of absorbing it during the day and.