Estimation of superficial urban heat island in the metropolitan area of Iquitos

Abstract

This contribution estimates the Surface Urban Heat Island Intensity (SUHI) during the period 2001-2016 for the Metropolitan Area of Iquitos (AMI), located in Peru in the department of Loreto. To quantify the SUHI, 2 methods were used: the first is the Streutker method (Streutker, 2002), in which it uses a Gaussian surface to adjust the Land soil temperature (LST) of the urban and rural surface. The second method proposed by Jose Flores (Flores, 2016), uses the difference between the 0.95 quantiles of LST for the urban area and the median of the LST for the rural area. Both methods use data from remote sensing of monthly LST and annual product of land cover type (Land Cover Type) at 0.05° resolution, obtained from the MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor on board the TERRA and AQUA satellite. In the AMI, in the day periods, the maximum SUHI shows the values in September (1.51°C) and minimum values in May (0.91°C). The nocturnal SUHI presents maximum values in March (0.80°C) and minimum values in November (-0.51°C), using the quantile method since the Streutker method does not fit due to the border with the Amazon River.