Pavement temperature is a factor of critical importance to the performance of pavement condition modeling and is the result of the surface energy balance of the fluxes of sensible, latent, and radiative heat. The effect of solar and emitted radiation on pavement temperature is evident in the immediacy of noticeable increase in pavement temperature to the sun rising or the arrival of a nocturnal cloud layer. Of pertinent importance to surface transportation weather is the amount of characteristic response in pavement temperature to energy supplied from shortwave and longwave radiation and the behavior of pavement throughout energy loss. An analysis of pavement radiation loading establishes the relationship between radiative energy and pavement temperature while promoting improvement in pavement temperature modeling and forecasting.

Radiation received by the surface remains difficult to forecast as the result of impacts from the height, areal coverage, timing, and temperature of cloud layers, as well as the presence of precipitation on the surface altering the net radiation received. As a result, pavement radiation loading rates with respect to time are highly variable to sky and surface condition in time and this analysis characterizes the degree of influence observed in pavement temperature of variable radiative environments. In the establishment of pavement surface and subsurface temperature sensitivity to radiation loading rates with respect to time, observations of required accuracy in radiation and surface layer content data are provided and essential to the performance of pavement temperature modeling.

This paper presents the results of a study of pavement radiation loading as the environment is subjected to variable radiative energy amounts. An investigation of the vertical heat exchange and rate of temperature change with respect to time has been made through the incorporation of a pavement condition model applied under typical road environment conditions.

An analysis of the study's pavement condition model data supports that the surface pavement temperature is highly sensitive in time and temperature to changes of radiation loading over time. This supports the need for improved accuracy of radiation data used in pavement temperature modeling. Sensitivity studies of the level of accuracy of pavement model input data provides valuable information on how pavement temperature predictions are critically reliant upon the resulting observed and predicted radiation fields, cloud layers, and presence of precipitation layers on the road surface. The analysis of pavement radiation loading in variable radiative conditions provides necessary understanding to the complexities and behavior of the pavement temperature problem.