Journal article
Characterization of Urban Heat Islands Using City Lights: Insights from MODIS and VIIRS DNB Observations
Remote sensing (Basel, Switzerland), Vol.13(3180), p.3180
08/01/2021
DOI: 10.3390/rs13163180
Abstract
An urban heat island (UHI) is a phenomenon whereby the temperature in an urban area is significantly warmer than it a rural area. To further advance the characterization and understanding of UHIs within urban areas, nighttime light measured by the Day/Night Band (DNB) onboard the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) and the land surface temperature (LST) data derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) combined with principal component analysis (PCA) are used here. Beijing (highly developed) and Pyongyang (less developed) are selected as the two case studies. Linear correlation analysis is first used, with higher correlations being found between DNB and LST data at nighttime than between population and LST data for both cities, although none of the correlation coefficients are particularly high because of noise. Principal component analysis (PCA), a method that can remove random noise, is used to extract more useful information. Two types of PCA are conducted, focusing on spatial (S) and temporal (T) patterns. The results of the S-mode PCA reveal that the typical temporal variation is a seasonal cycle for both LST and DNB data in Beijing and Pyongyang. Furthermore, there are monthly cycles for DNB data related to the moon phase in two cities. The T-mode PCA results show important spatial information, while the spatial pattern of the first mode explains over 50% of the variation. This study is among the first to demonstrate the advantages of using urban light to study the spatial variation of urban heat, especially for nighttime urban temperatures measured from space, at the street and neighborhood scales.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Characterization of Urban Heat Islands Using City Lights: Insights from MODIS and VIIRS DNB Observations
- Creators
- Jingjing Song - Beijing Meteorological Information Center, Beijing 100089, ChinaJun Wang - Center for Global and Regional Environmental Studies, Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52241, USAXiangao Xia - LAGEO, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, ChinaRunsheng Lin - Beijing Meteorological Information Center, Beijing 100089, ChinaYi Wang - Center for Global and Regional Environmental Studies, Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52241, USAMeng Zhou - Center for Global and Regional Environmental Studies, Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52241, USADisong Fu - LAGEO, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Remote sensing (Basel, Switzerland), Vol.13(3180), p.3180
- DOI
- 10.3390/rs13163180
- eISSN
- 2072-4292
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Grant note
- name: Opening Research of Key Laboratory of Middle Atmosphere and Global environment Observation (LAGEO), Institute of Atmospheric Physics, award: LAGEO-2019-03, SDZ20200618
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 08/01/2021
- Academic Unit
- Civil and Environmental Engineering; Iowa Technology Institute; Physics and Astronomy; Chemical and Biochemical Engineering
- Record Identifier
- 9984125518702771
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