A Temperature Error Correction Method for a Thermometer Screen

Due to solar radiation exposure, air flowing inside a thermometer screen may produce a measurement error of 0.8°C or higher. To improve the air temperature observation accuracy, a temperature error correction method is proposed. The correction method is based on a computational fluid dynamics method and a genetic algorithm method. The computational fluid dynamics method is implemented to analyze and calculate the temperature errors of a screen under various environmental conditions. Then, a temperature error correction equation is obtained by fitting the computational fluid dynamics results using the genetic algorithm method. To verify the performance of the correction equation the screen and an aspirated temperature measurement platform are characterized in the same environment to conduct the intercomparison. The aspirated temperature measurement platform serves as an air temperature reference. The mean temperature error given by measurements is 0.77°C, and the mean temperature error given by correction equation is 0.79°C. This correction equation allows the temperature error to be reduced by approximately 97.5%.