Spatial-temporal variation of land surface temperature of Jubail Industrial City, Saudi Arabia due to seasonal effect by using Thermal Infrared Remote Sensor (TIRS) satellite data

Abstract

The studies on spatial and temporal variations of Land Surface Temperature (LST) is very essential for understanding the heat energy balance and thermal flux of urban areas. They are also useful for making urban heat transfer models, water resource management, climate change modelling and environmental studies. The present study is to analyze the spatial and temporal variations of the LST of Jubail Industrial City, one of the biggest industrial area in the world. The surface temperature has been estimated by using Landsat 8 Thermal Infrared Remote Sensor (TIRS) satellite data through the single-channel (SC) method. The study provides the variations of surface temperature of the industrial city and reveals that the temperature is relatively low ranging from 10 to 26 °C during the winter month of January and February. However, some parts of the residential area and the industrial of the city have more temperature than the rest of the area. From the month of March, the temperature increases gradually and reaches high in the summer of month of June and July. During this summer period, the surface temperature in the residential area of the city is high around 40 - 50 °C. The temperature in the sub urban areas are moderate, however high temperature (50 - 55 °C) have been recorded in the industrial area of the city. The surface temperature gradually decreases from the month of September up to the peak winter period. However, significant heat islands of temperature more than 60 °C have been noted near the iron and steel factories of the industrial area in all the periods. Correlation analysis has also been carried out to assess relationship between the seasonal changes of the land surface temperature and air temperature of the city. There is no significant strong relationship has been is noticed to correlate the LST and air-temperature throughout the entire period of the study, however the LST and air-temperature shows good relationship during the summer period than the winter season.