Study on Urban Heat Island of Beijing using ASTER Data ----A Quantative Remote Sensing Perspective

The urban heat island (UHI) becomes a very serious problem in China. In this paper, the UHI pattern of Beijing in the four seasons was studied using ASTER thermal infrared data. The Land Surface Temperature(LST) maps of Beijing, China in the four seasons of 2004 were retrieved using local split window algorithm adjusted according to ASTER data and the atmosphere profiles of Beijing. And a numerical simulation showed the reliability of the retrieval results. It is found that LST in urban and rural areas display evident differences. The differences varied with seasons, and UHI is the most intensive in summer, with the intensity of around 0.6_~1.5 K, which is better explained by vegetation coverage differences in four seasons. Patterns of LST distribution were found to be closely related to land use types and seasons.