New research led by University of Hawai‘i (UH) at Mānoa atmospheric scientists found that the century-old yardstick used across many industries to estimate air-conditioning and refrigeration energy demand — called cooling degree days — is missing something fundamental. Their study, published recently in Nature Communications, reports a new, physics-based version of the metric — effective cooling degree days — that captures how temperature and humidity together impact the actual work a cooling system is required to do. Applying it across North America, they found that cooling efficiency has been quietly declining by 2–4% per decade since 1971, and that the old temperature-only metric misjudges how much cooling is required in different regions, overstating demand in some places and understating it in others.
Aloha! Welcome to the home page of the Department of Atmospheric Sciences. We are entering our second half century providing education in atmospheric sciences at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa. Since 1988 we have been part of the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST). To learn about our educational programs and our exciting research and service activities follow the links at the top of the page. For more information about the history and structure of the department, please visit our About the Department page.
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