On the radiative cooling of a surface during dew formation

Summary From the energy balance of a radiant surface with zero mass and perfectly insulated from below, the equilibrium temperature is calculated as a function of both sensible and latent heat transfer resistance. Under the hypothesis of Robinson,r _L=r _H is the air in contact with the surface is saturated, the equilibrium temperature is estimated as a function of air temperature, dew temperature and wind speed. This result could be useful to calculate night-time temperature of passive solar collectors or the yield of dew collectors. Paper presented at the 1^o Congresso del Gruppo Nazionale per la Fisica dell'Atmosfera e dell'Oceano, June 19–22, 1984, Rome.