Study of thermal environment based on remote sensing in Beijing-capital zone

The paper use the EOS-MODIS land surface temperature production (LST) to study the temporal and spatial thermal environment distribution of Bejing-capital zone, and Urban Heat island (UHI) intensity in the ten cities in the region were also studied by LST corrected by topography characteristic. In order to find the driving factors of UHI, the relationship between urban Land cover, NDVI and LST are analyzed. The temporal analysis shows that daytime UHI demonstrates distinctive seasonal variation, while the seasonal variation of nighttime UHI is much less. The conclusion shows that the urban heat island mainly results from the difference of the surface thermal characteristics between urban and rural area, which can provide the theoretic basis for the urban-planning optimization and urban thermal environment control.