Mapping micro-urban heat islands using NOAA/AVHRR images and CORINE Land Cover: an application to coastal cities of Greece

Land Surface Temperature (LST) is a significant parameter for identifying micro-climatic changes, their spatial distribution and intensities in relation to the urban environment. In this study, LST is estimated using thermal infrared data as acquired by the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) instrument onboard the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellite and by using a split window algorithm that is adjusted to account for the region of Greece. For the assignment of the surface emissivity, a new methodology based on the Coordination of Information on the Environment (CORINE) Land Cover database for Greece is used. The algorithm is applied to a night-time series of NOAA/AVHRR images of Greece in order to produce surface temperature maps of an enhanced spatial resolution of 250 m for the cities of Thessaloniki, Patra, Volos and Iraklion, which are the most significant harbour cities of Greece. Results indicate the presence of urban heat islands (UHIs) in each case study, with highest temperatures detected along the coastal zone of the harbour cities resulting from denser urban fabric and road network as well as intense human activity.

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