Urban heat is a growing issue (IMAGE)

NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Urban heat is a growing issue

Caption

Urban heat is a growing issue in other cities besides Chicago, too. This satellite imagery of suburban Atlanta, captured by Landsat 5 in an older study, shows the differences in daytime heating, as caused by the urban heat island effect. These data were collected May 11 and 12, 1997 (using the same instrument as the Chicago study data). While daytime air temperatures on that date were only about 80 F, surface temperatures reached as much as 118 F; nighttime air temperatures hovered between 50 F and 55 F, but due to the heat sink, surface temperatures hung on as high as 75 F.

Credit

Credits: NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio / Greg Shirah

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License

Public Domain

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