[1] Increasing the albedo of urban surfaces has received attention as a strategy to mitigate urban heat islands. Here, the effects of globally installing white roofs are assessed using an urban canyon model coupled to a global climate model. Averaged over all urban areas, the annual mean heat island decreased by 33%. Urban daily maximum temperature decreased by 0.6 C and daily minimum temperatu...

By the year 2003, 47% of the world’s 6.3 billion inhabitants were living in urban areas, while in more developed countries, 75% of the population (1.2 billion) lived in urban areas (Population Reference Bureau, 2003). As more and more people make their residencies in the heart of the industrial and commercial world, urbanisation will continue to grow. Alterations to the natural environment due ...

Thermal infrared satellite sensor images are widely used for assessing the thermal urban environment as well as for identifying the Urban Heat Islands (UHI) in highly urbanized areas. In this study, the relationship between urban growth and UHI in the megacity of Istanbul was investigated using the Landsat 5 TM satellite sensor data and temperature recordings obtained from the meteorological st...

The urban heat island (UHI), the phenomenon of higher temperatures in urban land than the surrounding rural land, is commonly attributed to changes in biophysical properties of the land surface associated with urbanization. Here we provide evidence for a long-held hypothesis that the biogeochemical effect of urban aerosol or haze pollution is also a contributor to the UHI. Our results are based...

An urban heat island (UHI) is a climate phenomenon that results in an increased air temperature in cities when compared to their rural surroundings. In this Letter, the dependence of an UHI on urban geometry is studied. Multiyear urban-rural temperature differences and building footprints data combined with a heat radiation scaling model are used to demonstrate for more than 50 cities worldwide...

Abstract Satellite observations show that the surface urban heat island intensity (SUHII) has been increasing over last two decades. This is often accompanied by an increased urban-rural contrast of vegetation greenness. However, contribution uneven trends in and rural areas to trend SUHII unclear, due confounding effects climate change changes man-made infrastructures anthropogenic sources. He...