Objectively mapping accumulated temperature for Ireland

✍ Scribed by Hargy, Vincent T.

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 530 KB
• Volume: 17
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0899-8418
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-0088(199707)17:9<909::aid-joc163>3.0.co;2-c

✦ Synopsis

Heating degree-days are a measure of accumulated temperature that have been used by heating engineers to compare with fuel consumption ®gures for energy analysis. One of the problems with using degree-days is estimating their spatial variation which can be signi®cant over short distances.

Objective mapping of the spatial variation in degree-days for Ireland has been achieved by applying statistical models of the spatial variation, over monthly, annual and heating season periods, to a specially constructed digital terrain model of Ireland. The resulting maps lend themselves to a more positive geographical appreciation of the variation involved and indicate areas with anomalous temperature regimes which invite further micro-scale studies. These maps will be of bene®t to the energy industry and similar maps of growing degree-days could be constructed for use by the agricultural industry in