About the model
The name RayMan stands for “radiation on the human body”. The model calculates the short- and long-wave radiation fluxes from a person's surroundings and derives the mean radiant temperature Tmrt – the most important meteorological input for the human energy balance on sunny days. Buildings, trees and horizon shading (e.g. via fish-eye photographs) can be entered freely or imported, along with topography and meteorological data. From Tmrt, RayMan calculates thermal indices such as PET, PMV and SET*, describing the thermal load experienced by people outdoors. RayMan was developed by Prof. Dr. Andreas Matzarakis together with F. Rutz and H. Mayer at the University of Freiburg, in line with VDI Guideline 3787, Part 2.
Application and use areas
Application
- Applied meteorology and climatology
- Landscape and ecological planning
- Forest and agricultural meteorology
- Urban meteorology and climatology
- Health, recreation and tourism
Uses
- Education and teaching
- Academic research
- Governmental and administrative use
Selected publications
- Matzarakis, A., Rutz, F., Mayer, H.: Modelling radiation fluxes in simple and complex environments – application of the RayMan model. International Journal of Biometeorology, 2007. Find on Google Scholar →
- Matzarakis, A., Rutz, F., Mayer, H.: Modelling radiation fluxes in simple and complex environments: basics of the RayMan model. International Journal of Biometeorology, 2010. Find on Google Scholar →
- VDI 3787, Part 2: Environmental Meteorology – Methods for the human-biometeorological evaluation of climate and air quality for urban and regional planning, Part I: Climate.
Request RayMan
RayMan is available free of charge. Please register using the form below – you will then receive the download link by email from Prof. Matzarakis.
Submitting opens your email program with a pre-filled message to Prof. Matzarakis. Please review it and send the email from there.
Or write directly to: andreas.matzarakis@meteo.uni-freiburg.de