Monitoring the Urban Heat Island from satellite images

Causes of UHI

• replacement of natural evaporative by non-porous surfaces

• larger surface area
• Higher heat capacity (ability of a body to store heat)

• Higher building mass with high thermal inertia   (tendency of a material to   resist change in temperature)

NASA’s ASTER satellite sensor (raw data) night-time thermal image at 10.42pm 31.01.07