Nov 25 2015
Arup, a multidisciplinary engineering and consulting firm with a reputation for delivering innovative and sustainable designs, and Argos Analytics, LLC, a provider of cost effective climate data services, today released an enhanced version of the WeatherShift™ Weather File Module. The Module generates projected future weather data for 255 cities worldwide, up from an original group of 50 cities.
Arup and Argos developed the software to help building owners reduce their future cost risk, due to climate change. Climate change is responsible for increasing global temperatures, which are causing significant shifts in weather patterns. These shifts are influencing energy use, water stress, and the comfort conditions of buildings and urban environments throughout the world. The WeatherShift tool also helps local governments to make better informed investment decisions during the initial design phases of large master planning and infrastructure projects.
The projected weather data is generated by historical weather data and adjusted according to climate projections run for the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report. It can be used to simulate building and urban performance under future climate conditions. The data enables designers to develop strategies for readying buildings to respond to potential impacts and maintain their core services.
Version 2.0 of the WeatherShift Weather File Module includes pre-loaded base year weather files for 131 cities freely available in the public domain, making their availability to the user virtually instantaneous. Users can also upload their own base year weather files for any of the 255 cities.
The WeatherShift Weather File Module v2.0 also incorporates an increase in the number of global climate models used to adjust the weather data from 6 to 14. It also provides data for three future time periods, rather than the two in the initial release.
"We are excited to extend the availability of WeatherShift future weather data to a much larger number of major and rapidly growing cities around the world," said Cole Roberts, Associate Principal, Arup. "We have already used it successfully for many clients. The enhancements will benefit even more cities and building owners than before."
The projected hourly 8,760 weather files are produced using a time series adjustment or 'morphing' technique that makes use of climate offsets produced by Argos Analytics from an ensemble of global climate model projections for both the RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 emissions scenarios, representing a range of possible future climatic conditions. Within that range, users can choose the warming percentile they wish to use for the projected weather data.
The original version of the WeatherShift Weather File Module was released on May 12, 2014. Users can access the Weather File Module at www.weather-shift.com.
Source: http://www.arup.com/