Rapid calculation of terrain parameters for radiation modeling from digital elevation data

Author

Dozier, Jeff ; Frew, James

Author_Institution

California Univ., Santa Barbara, CA, USA

Volume

28

Issue

5

fYear

1990

fDate

9/1/1990 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

963

Lastpage

969

Abstract

Digital elevation models are widely used to calculate terrain parameters to determine incoming solar and longwave radiation for use in surface climate models, interpretation of remote-sensing data, and parameters in hydrologic models. Because of the large number of points in an elevation grid, fast algorithms are useful to save computation time. A description is given of rapid methods for calculating slope and azimuth, solar illumination angle, horizons, and view factors for radiation from sky and terrain. Calculation time is reduced by fast algorithms and lookup tables

Keywords

atmospheric radiation; atmospheric techniques; geophysical techniques; meteorology; remote sensing; sunlight; topography (Earth); Earth surface radiation; Emerald Lake drainage basin; S Sierra Nevada; USA; computation time; digital elevation data; fast algorithms; horizons; hydrologic models; incoming long-wave radiation; incoming solar radiation; lookup tables; radiation modeling; remote-sensing data; sky radiation; slope angle calculation; slope azimuth calculation; solar illumination angle; surface climate models; terrain parameters; terrain radiation view factor; thermal IR radiation; view factor; Azimuth; Digital elevation models; Grid computing; Lighting; NASA; Remote sensing; Satellites; Soil moisture; Surface topography; Surface waves; Table lookup; Wind speed;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Geoscience and Remote Sensing, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0196-2892

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/36.58986

Filename

58986