Jakarta and Surabaya land surface temperaturebefore and during the Covid-19 pandemic

摘要

The first incidence of the novel coronavirus or Covid-19 was reported in late 2019, and in thefollowing year, the disease was declared a global pandemic. In Indonesia, the first case was reported inearly March, 2020, and ever since, the government has appealed to the public to reduce outdooractivities in order to curtail the spread of the virus. Consequently, many companies and institutionsimplemented the ‘Work from Home’ (WFH) policy. At the end of April, the provincial government ofJakarta issued large-scale social restrictions, locally called PSBB. These restrictions were laterimplemented in other cities such as Surabaya. Jakarta was the epicentre of the spread of the virus inIndonesia, followed by Surabaya, the second largest city in the country. Therefore, this study aimed toanalyze the Thermal Humidity Index (THI) of both cities, before and during the pandemic. Data wereobtained from the MODIS Terra Land Surface Temperature and Emissivity 8-Day Global 1km, from the 1stto 14th May, 2019 (before the pandemic), and during the same period the following year (during thepandemic). Furthermore, data analysis was carried out using Google Earth Engine (GEE), a cloud-basedplatform for geo-spatial data analysis. The hypothesis in this study was that the social restriction policycaused a difference in the THI before and during the pandemic. Therefore, this hypothesis was proven bythe results, as the policy caused a decrease in the THI during the pandemic.