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  indicator to describe a surface urban heat island is the difference between urban and rural surface temperatures. However, several other indicators for this purpose have been suggested in the literature. In this study, we compared the eleven different indicators for quantifying
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 indicators
individually reveal diurnal and seasonal patterns but show rather low
correlations over time, and (ii) for single points in time, the
different indicators
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 indicators. Thus, we can identify temporal aspects and indicator
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 indicators chosen for quantifying surface urban heat islands and should use several indicators 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 |
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