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The wet-bulb globe temperature (WBGT) is a measure of environmental heat as it affects humans. Unlike a simple temperature measurement, WBGT accounts for all four major environmental heat factors: air temperature, humidity, radiant heat (from sunlight or sources such as furnaces), and air movement (wind or ventilation). [ 1 ]
The wet-bulb temperature is the lowest temperature that may be achieved by evaporative cooling of a water-wetted, ventilated surface.. By contrast, the dew point is the temperature to which the ambient air must be cooled to reach 100% relative humidity assuming there is no further evaporation into the air; it is the temperature where condensation (dew) and clouds would form.
A wet bulb thermometer also uses evaporative cooling, so it provides a good measure for use in evaluating comfort level. Discomfort also exists when the dew point is very low (below around −5 °C or 23 °F). [citation needed] The drier air can cause skin to crack and become irritated more easily. It will also dry out the airways.
As the planet continues to get hotter, humans are at greater risk for heat-related illness and death but an index aims to avoid such.
The humidity of an air and water vapor mixture is determined through the use of psychrometric charts if both the dry bulb temperature (T) and the wet bulb temperature (T w) of the mixture are known. These quantities are readily estimated by using a sling psychrometer .
Wet-bulb potential temperature, sometimes referred to as pseudo wet-bulb potential temperature, is the temperature that a parcel of air at any level would have if, starting at the wet-bulb temperature, it were brought at the saturated adiabatic lapse rate to the standard pressure of 1,000 mbar.
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