ИСТИНА

The urban ‘heat island’ phenomenon in Moscow city has been studied by long-term data of ‘Aqua’ and ‘Terra’ satellites which are supplied by MODIS radiometers. The surface temperature has been analyzed in Moscow region with a spatial resolution of 1 km. More than 100 satellite images in cloudless conditions for the period from 2009 to 2013 have been found and studied. The average values of the surface temperature inside the city were compared with ones outside it (at rural zone) for this period. The average intensity of the urban ‘heat island’ by radiometer data has been received as equal from +2 to +3 ˚C. It varied from –0.1 to +7.7 ˚C so that sometimes in the midday this parameter may be a bit negative. These results have been compared with the data about ‘heat island’ in Moscow by network of ground meteorological stations. The annual course of the ‘heat island’ intensity in Moscow has been studied. Besides, the whole area of the city has been divided into four types of the surface including urban forests and parks, open water (river and lakes), area of dense urban saturation and all the rest (grasslands, separate buildings, etc.). As a result, the average surface temperature has been calculated for green zones (forests and parks) separately and compared with total estimations for whole the city. Some methodical questions of satellite data interpretation, including comparison between surface temperature and air temperature have been discussed additionally.