Thermal
remote sensing of
urban climates
Voogt, J.A.
and Oke, T.R.
REMOTE SENSING
OF
ENVIRONMENT 86 (3): 370-384 AUG 15 2003
Abstract: Thermal
remote sensing has been used over urban areas to assess the urban heat
island,
to perform land cover classifications and as input for models of urban
surface
atmosphere exchange. Here, we review the use of thermal remote sensing
in the
study of urban climates, focusing primarily on the urban heat island
effect and
progress made towards answering the methodological questions posed by
Roth et
al. [International Journal of Remote Sensing 10 (1989) 1699]. The
review demonstrates
that while some progress has been made, the thermal remote sensing of
urban
areas has been slow to advance beyond qualitative description of
thermal
patterns and simple correlations. Part of the difficulty lies in the
tendency
to use qualitatively based land use data to describe the urban surface
rather
than the use of more fundamental surface descriptors. Advances in the
application of thermal remote sensing to natural and agricultural
surfaces
suggest insight into possible methods to advance techniques and
capabilities
over urban areas. Improvements in the spatial and spectral resolution
of
current and next-generation satellite-based sensors, in more detailed
surface
representations of urban surfaces and in the availability of low cost,
high
resolution portable thermal scanners are expected to allow progress in
the
application of urban thermal remote sensing to the study of the climate
of
urban areas. (C) 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.