Publication Details

Category Text Publication
Reference Category Journals
DOI 10.1016/j.rse.2011.07.003
Title (Primary) Exploring indicators for quantifying surface urban heat islands of European cities with MODIS land surface temperatures
Author Schwarz, N.; Lautenbach, S.; Seppelt, R.
Source Titel Remote Sensing of Environment
Year 2011
Department CLE
Volume 115
Issue 12
Page From 3175
Page To 3186
Language englisch
Keywords Urban heat island; MODIS; Europe
Abstract

The term urban heat island describes the phenomenon of altered temperatures in urban areas compared to their rural hinterlands. A surface urban heat island encompasses the patterns of land surface temperatures in urban areas. The classical previous termindicatornext term to describe a surface urban heat island is the difference between urban and rural surface temperatures. However, several other previous termindicatorsnext term for this purpose have been suggested in the literature. In this study, we compared the eleven different previous termindicatorsnext term for previous termquantifyingnext term surface urban heat islands that were most frequently used in recent publications on remote sensing-based urban heat island assessments. The dataset used here consists of 263 European cities with monthly mean temperatures from MODIS data products for July 2002, January 2003 and July 2003. We found that (i) the previous termindicatorsnext term individually reveal diurnal and seasonal patterns but show rather low correlations over time, and (ii) for single points in time, the different previous termindicatorsnext term show only weak correlations, although they are supposed to quantify the same phenomenon. Differentiating cities according to thermal climate zones increased the relationships between the previous termindicatorsnext term. Thus, we can identify temporal aspects and previous termindicatornext term selection as important factors determining the estimation of urban heat islands. We conclude that research should take into account the differences and instabilities of the previous termindicatorsnext term chosen for previous termquantifyingnext term surface urban heat islands and should use several previous termindicatorsnext term in parallel for describing the surface urban heat island of a city.
Persistent UFZ Identifier https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=11746
Schwarz, N., Lautenbach, S., Seppelt, R. (2011):
Exploring indicators for quantifying surface urban heat islands of European cities with MODIS land surface temperatures
Remote Sens. Environ. 115 (12), 3175 - 3186 10.1016/j.rse.2011.07.003