Scientific Glossary
Plain-language and scientific definitions for every term used across MEER's research, projects and tools — the reference for passive cooling, heat resilience and climate adaptation.
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.
Reflective Canopies
Overhead structures with a reflective upper surface that shade people and land beneath.
Reflective Reservoir Systems
Covering water reservoirs with reflective floating panels to cut evaporation and cool the surroundings.
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.
Solar 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 band of infrared wavelengths (roughly 8–13 μm) where Earth's atmosphere is nearly transparent to heat.
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.
Climate 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.
Human physiology
How environmental heat becomes bodily strain.
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.
MEER technologies
HeatLens, HESTIA, PYROX and the tools inside them.
HeatLens
MEER's browser-based platform for physiologically informed heat-risk assessment and climate adaptation.
HESTIA
MEER's scientific engine for high-resolution surface energy and thermal comfort modelling.
PYROX
MEER's population heat-exposure and risk-attribution suite.
JOS-3
A validated multi-node human thermoregulation model used inside HeatLens.
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