Clothing color effect as a target of the smallest scale climate change adaptation.

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to understand a physical mechanism to determine the surface temperature of clothes in calm and fine conditions of outdoors. We observed surface temperatures of polo shirts of the same material and design but different colors. The shirts were placed in unshaded and well-ventilated outdoor, open spaces on sunny summer days. The maximum difference between dark green or black and white was more than 15 °C during calm, fine weather and was greatest when the solar radiation was strong. If the transmission of solar radiation energy through a shirt is ignored to calculate the absorption by the shirt, the difference in solar radiation absorption due to different colors is as much as 24% in the maximum, and if considered, we concluded that an absorption difference of 34% led to a temperature difference of 15℃. When we compared the brightness of the colors, we found that the albedo of both the visible and NIR bands explained why the red and green colors were so different with respect to the surface temperatures we observed. The reflection in the NIR bands was also an important determinant of the surface temperature. An additional experiment using masks showed that the temperature difference between white and black was almost eliminated at a wind speed of ~ 3 m/s. The color of clothing is therefore a target for small-scale adaptation to climate change.