Land surface temperature analysis of settlements in Belo Horizonte through time series of remote sensing images

Abstract

In view of the low coverage by official meteorological stations to assess urban climatic phenomena, remote sensing stands out as an interesting resource, which can be used for the detection of heat cores. Thus, the research aimed to study the temporal and spatial distribution of surface temperature in the city of Belo Horizonte, identifying the possible relationship of heat cores with the location of villages and settlements, which occupy 5% of the territory. Images from the Landsat-8 satellite were used between the years 2013 and 2020, from which the surface temperature was calculated for a set of 29 different dates. The results indicated that not necessarily the villages and settlements appear as significant thermal cores, having been more associated with warehouses and structures with extensive metallic coating, which were up to 8.7°C warmer, on average, than the surrounding surfaces. The survey, however, was not enough to answer whether, from the point of view of air temperature, the spaces investigated show different behavior when compared to neighborhoods with an orderly pattern of streets and buildings.