Jakarta and Surabaya land surface temperature before and during the Covid-19 pandemic

The first incidence of the novel coronavirus or Covid-19 was reported in late 2019, and in the following year, the disease was declared a global pandemic. In Indonesia, the first case was reported in early March, 2020, and ever since, the government has appealed to the public to reduce outdoor activities in order to curtail the spread of the virus. Consequently, many companies and institutions implemented the Work from Home' (WFH) policy. At the end of April, the provincial government of Jakarta issued large-scale social restrictions, locally called PSBB. These restrictions were later implemented in other cities such as Surabaya. Jakarta was the epicentre of the spread of the virus in Indonesia, followed by Surabaya, the second largest city in the country. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze the Thermal Humidity Index (THI) of both cities, before and during the pandemic. Data were obtained from the MODIS Terra Land Surface Temperature and Emissivity 8-Day Global 1km, from the 1st to 14th May, 2019 (before the pandemic), and during the same period the following year (during the pandemic). Furthermore, data analysis was carried out using Google Earth Engine (GEE), a cloud-based platform for geo-spatial data analysis. The hypothesis in this study was that the social restriction policy caused a difference in the THI before and during the pandemic. Therefore, this hypothesis was proven by the results, as the policy caused a decrease in the THI during the pandemic.