To address the dearth of knowledge about person-based and trip-level exposure, we developed the Icarus model. Icarus uses mesoscale traffic model—activity-based model—to analyze the heat exposure of regions of interest at an individual level. The goal with Icarus was to design accurate, granular models of population and temperature behavior for a target region, which could be transformed into a heat exposure model by means of simulation and spatial-temporal joining. By combining and implementing the most robust software and data available, Icarus was able to capture person-based exposure with unparalleled detail. Here we describe the model methodology. We use the metropolitan region of Phoenix, Arizona, USA to carry out a case study using Icarus.

By the 1930s, the MBL had become "the" place to go during the summer for biological research and training. Luminaries such as Frank Lillie, Edmund Beecher Wilson, Edwin Grant Conklin, and Thomas Hunt Morgan took their students, packed up their families and research labs, and headed to the MBL. They worked in labs, ate together in the Mess, and they often lived in the limited on-campus housing. Life at the MBL was a life where fun, family, and science intertwined. This film, taken in 1935 by B. R. Coonfield of Brooklyn College, captures snippets of life at the MBL. Though the science and equipment are considerably updated and the faces and families have changed, many features remain the same today.