Scientific Glossary
An interactive knowledge base for passive cooling, heat resilience and climate adaptation. Browse by category, follow the concept map, or click any term to see how it connects to MEER's research, projects and platforms.
Knowledge map
How the core concepts connect
From the underlying physics to the human outcomes MEER's research is designed to change. Hover or tap any card to trace its relationships across the glossary.
Tip · Hover a card to preview its concept, or click to lock focus and jump to the in-depth page.
Cooling techniques
The passive, reflective and radiative methods MEER deploys.
Passive Cooling
Cooling a surface, building or space using materials and design instead of electricity.
Passive Daytime Radiative Cooling
PDRCA material that stays cooler than the air even under direct sunlight by radiating heat to the cold sky.
Reflective Cooling
Cooling by bouncing sunlight away from a surface before it can be absorbed as heat.
Cool Roofs (Reflective Roofs)
Reflective RoofsRoofs coated or built with high-reflectance materials so buildings absorb far less heat.
Learn moreCool your roofReflective Canopies
Overhead structures with a reflective upper surface that shade people and land beneath.
Learn moreCommunity projectsReflective Reservoir Systems
Covering water reservoirs with reflective floating panels to cut evaporation and cool the surroundings.
Learn moreWater resourcesPET Sheeting
Polyethylene Terephthalate FilmA strong, durable polymer film used as the base for MEER's reflective and emissive cooling materials.
Bamboo–PET Composite
A hybrid roofing system combining fast-growing bamboo with reflective PET film.
PET SheetingCool Roofs (Reflective Roofs)Carbon-Negative Building SystemsIndoor Temperature ReductionModular Cooling Systems
Pre-fabricated cooling units that can be assembled locally and scaled across sites.
Upcycled Materials
Materials repurposed from waste streams into higher-value cooling components.
Surface-Based Cooling
Ground EngineeringCooling delivered at Earth's surface itself, rather than in the atmosphere or in space.
Evaporation Suppression
Reducing water loss from reservoirs and canals by covering the surface with reflective floating films.
Learn moreWater resources
Physics & optics
The underlying physical properties that make passive cooling work.
Radiative Cooling
Heat loss from any object by emitting thermal infrared radiation.
Albedo
The fraction of sunlight a surface reflects — 0 is black, 1 is a perfect mirror.
Learn moreUnderstanding albedoSolar Reflectance
The fraction of incoming solar energy a surface reflects across the sun's spectrum.
Thermal Emittance
How efficiently a surface releases heat as infrared radiation.
Atmospheric Window
Sky WindowA range of infrared wavelengths (roughly 8–13 μm) where the atmosphere absorbs relatively little of Earth's outgoing thermal radiation.
Surface Energy Balance
The bookkeeping of energy flowing into and out of a surface at every moment.
Effective Radiative Forcing
The net change in Earth's energy balance caused by a given intervention or driver.
Climate & policy
How cooling fits inside adaptation, mitigation and resilience.
Urban Heat Island
UHIThe phenomenon where cities are noticeably hotter than the surrounding countryside.
Learn moreUrban coolingClimate Adaptation
Actions that reduce harm from a changing climate here and now.
Climate Resilience
A community's ability to withstand, recover from and continue functioning through climate stress.
Adaptive Mitigation
Interventions that adapt to warming today and reduce warming tomorrow.
Circular Economy
A model of production and consumption that minimises waste and keeps materials in use.
Carbon-Negative Building Systems
Building systems that remove more CO₂ over their lifecycle than they emit.
Greenhouse Effect
The trapping of heat in Earth's atmosphere by gases such as CO₂, methane and water vapour.
Decarbonization
Reducing CO₂ emissions across energy, transport, industry and agriculture.
Thermal Lag
The delay between emitting greenhouse gases and feeling the full warming they cause.
Climate Tipping Points
Thresholds in Earth systems beyond which change becomes self-reinforcing and often irreversible.
Geoengineering
Climate InterventionDeliberate large-scale interventions in Earth's climate system, spanning solar radiation management and carbon dioxide removal.
Wetlands (Carbon Sink Function)
Wetland ecosystems that absorb and store carbon while regulating water cycles.
Global South
A broad term for lower- and middle-income countries, largely in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Human physiology
How environmental heat becomes bodily strain.
Heat Stress
The thermal load a human body experiences from its environment.
Heat Strain
The body's internal, physiological response to heat stress.
Thermal Comfort
The condition in which a person is neither too hot nor too cold.
Measurement & indices
The metrics that quantify heat and comfort.
Wet Bulb Globe Temperature
WBGTA composite heat index widely used to set safe limits for outdoor work, sport and military training.
Universal Thermal Climate Index
UTCIA modern, physiology-based heat index that estimates how the human body actually responds to weather.
Mean Radiant Temperature
MRTThe average temperature of every surface radiating heat toward a person.
Indoor Temperature Reduction
The measurable drop in indoor temperature achieved by passive reflective and radiative cooling.
Lifecycle Costs
The full cost of a cooling technology across manufacture, installation, maintenance and end-of-life.
Scientific platforms & research tools
These are scientific platforms and analytical tools that support MEER's research, modelling and decision-making. They are not technologies developed by MEER, but they play an important role in helping us understand, evaluate and improve passive cooling solutions.
HeatLens
MEER's browser-based platform for physiologically informed heat-risk assessment and climate adaptation.
Learn moreHeatLens appHESTIA
MEER's scientific engine for high-resolution surface energy and thermal comfort modelling.
JOS-3
A validated multi-node human thermoregulation model used inside HeatLens.
Mirrors for Earth's Energy Rebalancing
MEERA nonprofit, founded in 2021 by Dr. Ye Tao, dedicated to passive, surface-based climate cooling.
From a single term to the whole picture
Topic hubs pull projects, research, stories and tools together around a single scientific theme.