Autori: Cheval S, Dumitrescu A

Editorial: Theoretical and Applied Climatology, 2014.

Rezumat:

The summer surface urban heat island (SUHI) of the city of Bucharest (Romania) is investigated in terms of its shape, intensity, extension and links to land cover. The study employs land surface temperature (LST) data retrieved by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensors aboard the Terra (EOS AM-1) and Aqua (EOS PM-1) NASA satellites, between 2000 and 2012. Based on the Rodionov regime shift index, the significant changing points in the land surface temperature values along transverse profiles crossing the city’s centre were considered as SUHI’s limits. The thermal difference between the SUHI and several surrounding buffers defines the SUHI’s intensity. The night-time SUHI’s geometry is more regular, and its intensity is slightly lower than during the day, while the land cover exerts a strong influence on Bucharest’s LST. In summary, the study proposes a methodology to delimit and quantify the average SUHI based on the statistical significance of the shift between the urban area and its surroundings, and the limitations of the method are mentioned.

Cuvinte cheie: MODIS, urban climate, urban climatology, Bucharest, satellite remote sensing, urban heat island

URL: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00704-014-1250-8