Spatiotemporal variability characteristics of clear-sky land surface temperature in urban areas of Japan observed by Himawari-8

Abstract

This paper provides the first attempt to investigate the spatial variability of diurnal change patterns of land surface temperature (LST) in urban areas of Japan by applying principal component analysis on LST data retrieved from Himawari-8 geostationary satellite data. The Tokyo and Osaka metropolitan areas were the focus of the analysis, and the target days were days with zero cloud cover in summer and winter. The results of the analysis showed that diurnal cycles of LST are mainly formed by two temporal change patterns in both seasons. For the summer case, the first two principal components (PCs) represented the temporal change patterns related to the amplitude and phase, respectively. For the winter case, the first two PCs represented the temporal change patterns related to the amplitude and gradual change in LST throughout the day, respectively. Results suggest that these temporal change patterns in both seasons have spatial variability partially dictated by land use and wind speed/direction.