ASHRAE技术委员会4.2，气候信息，在ASHRAE手册-基本原理（ASHRAE 2009a）第14章中发布了四年一次的气候设计信息更新。世界各地5564个地点的设计信息基于每小时的干球温度、湿球温度、露点温度、风速和风向、表面压力和太阳辐射值。2009年的设计条件与2005年的设计条件相比，在全球覆盖范围方面有了显著的提升——2009年为5564个地点，而2005年为4422个地点。 ASHRAE设计条件以气象数据为基础，使用观测时间至少为8年的台站的每小时地面数据进行计算，但更多台站的观测时间通常为25年；尽管时间序列经常是不连续的。ASHRAEsolar相关设计条件基于模型推导的太阳辐射。全球和时间连续气象和太阳数据的潜在来源是NASA的POWER（全球能源资源预测）门户网站（NASA2013a）。这包括基于改进再分析模型的最新气象数据- 现代研究与应用回顾性分析（MERRA）。MERRA提供1981年至今的全球每小时地面气象参数。对MERRA每日最高、最低和平均温度的初步评估表明，其精度足以保证该系统能够补充现有的地表观测数据。在本文中，我们对MERRA每日温度的准确性进行了评估，然后评估了MERRA每小时温度在制定年度灯泡气候设计标准和年度加热和冷却度方面的适用性- 在美国大陆上空数天。引文:美国科学与技术研究院学报第119卷第2部分，科罗拉多州丹佛市。

ASHRAE Technical Committee 4.2, Climatic Information,publishes a quadrennial update of climatic design informationin Chapter 14 of the ASHRAE Handbook - Fundamentals(ASHRAE 2009a). The design information for 5564 locationsaround the world is based upon hourly values of dry-bulbtemperature, wet-bulb temperature, dew-point temperature,wind speed and direction, surface pressure, and solar radiation.The 2009 design conditions provided a significantenhancement over the 2005 design conditions with respect tothe global coverage - 5564 locations in 2009 versus 4422 locationsin 2005. The ASHRAE design conditions, based on meteorologicaldata, are calculated using hourly surface data fromstations having a minimum of 8 years of observations, but morestations typically span 25 years of observations; althoughfrequently the time series are discontinuous. The ASHRAEsolar-related design conditions are based on model-derivedsolar radiation. A potential source for both global and timecontiguous meteorological and solar data is NASA’s POWER(Prediction ofWorldwide Energy Resource) web portal (NASA2013a). This includes the recently available meteorologicaldata based on an improved reanalysis model - Modern EraRetrospective-analysis for Research and Applications(MERRA). MERRA yields global, hourly surface meteorologicalparameters for the years 1981 to present. An initial evaluationof the MERRA daily maximum, minimum, and averagedtemperatures indicates accuracies sufficient to warrant theiruse to supplement existing surface observations. In this paper,we present an evaluation of the accuracy of the MERRA dailytemperatures, followed by an assessment of the applicability ofthe MERRA hourly temperatures in the development of annualdry-bulb climate design criteria and annual heating and coolingdegree-days over the continental United States.