IDENTIFICATION OF URBAN HEAT ISLANDS FROM MULTI TEMPORAL MODIS LAND SURFACE TEMPERATURE DATA IN THE SOUTHERN PART OF WEST BENGAL, INDIA

Land surface temperature is the temperature of the earth’s ground surface and is crucial for climate studies in different aspects like geology, engineering, phenology etc. Research on urban heat island is mainly dependent upon the land surface temperature studies and is highly useful from civil engineering perspective. An attempt has been made here to study the spatio-temporal dynamics of the land surface temperature and associated urban heat islands in the southern part of West Bengal, India. The authors extracted the major urban heat islands from mean monthly time series MODIS Land Surface Temperature data sets for the period from 2010 to 2015 and identified the pattern of change of land surface temperature in the study area. The urban heat island patterns have also been correlated with the classified land use and land cover information of the same area.