A Numerical Model for Predicting Road Surface Temperature in the Highway

Based on the surface energy balance method, a road surface temperature prediction model is established using solar shortwave radiation, longwave radiation, sensible and latent heat fluxes,and surface heat flux. The numerical model for the prediction of road surface temperature has been tested on data from two road stations in the summer and winter.Observations from the Luilongguan and Yangfang staions in the highway are used to compare with the model simulations.The results show that the road surface temperature predictions are well correlated with the observations under the three weather conditions (sunny, cloudy, overcast).Correlation coefficients are higher than 0.90. It is relatively low in rainy and snowy conditions. The results are generally encouraging and indicate that the road surface temperature prediction model has a good performance.