Evaluation of directional quadrature schemes for simulating urban radiative transfer using the discrete ordinate method

Abstract

In the last decades, different numerical methods have been applied to simulate radiative transfer in urban configurations. In cases where atmospheric air is treated as an absorbing gas, it has been shown in many cases that the use of the Discrete Ordinate Method has been shown in many situations to provide a good compromise between calculation cost and accuracy. In this paper, several quadrature schemes for directional integration in the DOM are compared for different urban conditions and types (visible, thermal infrared) of radiation. This allows for determining which angular quadrature scheme is the most appropriate for urban radiative transfer calculations. In conclusion, the Fibonacci quadrature set outperforms all other quadratures in the traditional canyon simulation with a transparent model. Meanwhile, the performance of Level Symmetric Odd and Hybrid quadrature (LSO/LSH) and Equal Weight Odd (EWO) catch up with Fibonacci's in a participative atmosphere model.