A Japanese study revealed the colors that should be chosen to stay “cooler” in the summer

We tend to think that black is the least suitable color to wear in the summer because it absorbs the most light and heat from the sun, but according to a Japanese study, the “worst” color would be… Dark green colour, which absorbs a slightly larger amount of infrared radiation (which we consider to be heat). The experiment was carried out by Toshiaki IchinoseResearcher at the Japanese National Institute for Environmental Studies in Tsukuba. The study also confirms that the most reflective colors are white And the yellow.

But maybe we don't have only these colors in our wardrobe, so What is the order of color shades between the two? In 2019, Professor Ichinose began studying the relationship between temperature and clothing color with his research group, drawing the attention of many scientists to… An experiment to understand what colors make us cool.

Before explaining this, it must be made clear that everything reflects the radiant energy of the sun, but at different speeds depending on its color. Radiant energy comes in that is not reflected It is absorbed as heat. This means that colors with low reflectivity heat up easily, while colors with high reflectivity stay cool.

In the experiment, Ichinose placed nine different colored polo shirts on models' torsos and placed them under the summer sun. After 5 minutes of exposure, he measured Tissue surface temperature With one Thermal camera To see how hot it is.

The color that remained the coolest was white, followed by yellow – the surface temperature of polo shirts in these colors reflects by about 30 degrees Celsius – then grey, red, purple, blue, green, dark green and black. This temperature exceeded 45 degrees Celsius in some areas, and it seemed to be the worst ever, but there was an unexpected result. Researchers discovered that it is not black that absorbs infrared rays the most (86%), but black. the Dark green colourThat is equivalent to 87%. Ichinose said:

After expanding our study to include invisible, near-infrared light, we found that green is very close to black. We can say that these two colors belong to the same group.

White, on the other hand, reaffirms itself in the first place, as it absorbs only 63% of the infrared rays that reach it.

The results may vary slightly depending on the condition, the researchers said Dye used to color clothesBut one thing is certain: if you want to escape the summer heat as much as possible, it is better to use white, yellow, gray and red clothes and avoid black, dark green, green, blue and purple clothes.