Heat Islands of Small Towns and Villages in Moscow Region

Surface urban heat island, which are thermal anomalies in the field of surface temperatures, have been studied for the first time for different towns and villages of Moscow region and its surroundings. The studies have been carried out on the basis of radiometric measurements from Terra and Aqua satellites for the example of one year. The intensity of this phenomenon Δ Т S has been defined as the temperature difference between the average surface temperature in urban places and in the surrounding rural places. The intensity varies from weakly negative values for small villages including the surrounding forest edge, close to zero values for the smallest towns (Vereya), and up to 2.6°С for the biggest city in the region (Moscow). According to the more precise data of the Landsat satellite, Δ Т S > 0°С even in the smallest settlements. The intensity of the urban heat islands depends on both the population (ranging from 10 1 to 10 7 ppl.) and the area of settlements (ranging from 10 –1 to 10 3 km 2 ). These dependencies are reliably described by exponential functions. In most places, the annual course of Δ Т S is characterized by a maximum in summer during active plant vegetation and a minimum in fall or winter. The differences in the intensity of the surface urban heat islands between Moscow and the small towns of the Moscow region are statistically reliable. The influence of the edge effects for the satellite data with spatial resolution of 1 km 2 leads to significant underestimation of the real intensity of the urban heat island if the town area is less than 20–25 km 2 .