Estimating urban heat island effects on near-surface air temperature records of Uccle (Brussels, Belgium): an observational and modeling study

摘要

In this letter, the Brussels's urban heat island (UHI)effect on the near-surface air temperature time series of Uccle (thenational suburban recording station of the Royal Meteorological Institute ofBelgium) was estimated between 1955 and 2006 during the summer months. TheUHI of Brussels was estimated using both ground-based weather stations andremote sensing imagery combined with a land surface scheme that includes astate-of-the-art urban parameterization, the Town Energy Balance scheme.Analysis of urban warming based on the remote sensing method reveals thatthe urban bias on minimum air temperature is rising at a higher rate, 2.5times (2.85 ground-based observed) more, than on maximum temperature, with alinear trend of 0.15 °C (0.19 °C ground-based observed) and 0.06 °C(0.06 °C ground-based observed) per decade respectively. Thesummer-mean urban bias on the mean air temperature is 0.8 °C (0.9 °Cground-based observed). The results based on remote sensing imagery arecompatible with estimates of urban warming based on weather stations.Therefore, the technique presented in this work is a useful tool inestimating the urban heat island contamination in long time series,countering the drawbacks of an ground-observational approach.