Urban heat islands in the Arctic cities: an updated compilation of in situ and remote-sensing estimations

Persistent warm urban temperature anomalies – urban heat islands (UHIs) – significantly enhance already amplified climate warming in the Arctic. Vulnerability of urban infrastructure in the Arctic cities urges a region-wide study of the UHI intensity and its attribution to UHI drivers. This study pr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Advances in Science and Research
Main Authors: I. Esau, V. Miles, A. Soromotin, O. Sizov, M. Varentsov, P. Konstantinov
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Copernicus Publications 2021
Subjects:
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Online Access:https://doi.org/10.5194/asr-18-51-2021
https://doaj.org/article/9fadc237bcfc45848bd2e66d54b9e0c4
Description
Summary:Persistent warm urban temperature anomalies – urban heat islands (UHIs) – significantly enhance already amplified climate warming in the Arctic. Vulnerability of urban infrastructure in the Arctic cities urges a region-wide study of the UHI intensity and its attribution to UHI drivers. This study presents an overview of the surface and atmospheric UHIs in all circum-Arctic settlements (118 in total) with the population larger than 3000 inhabitants. The surface UHI (SUHI) is obtained from the land surface temperature (LST) data products of the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) archive over 2000–2016. The atmospheric UHI is obtained from screen-level temperature provided by the Urban Heat Island Arctic Research Campaign (UHIARC) observational network over 2015–2018. Several other UHI studies are included for comparisons. The analysis reveals strong and persistent UHI during both summer and winter seasons. The annual mean surface UHI magnitudes vary from −0.6 ∘ C (Hammerfest) to 4.3 ∘ C (Murmansk). Thus, the observed UHI is likely an important climatic factor that must be included in future adjustment of urban construction, safety, and environmental quality codes.