Observation Experiments and Analysis of Summer Urban Heat Island in Cold Region Based on Low-Altitude Dual-Source Remote Sensing: A Case Study of Zhengzhou University Main Campus

Rapid urbanization worldwide has exacerbated the urban heat island (UHI) effect. Although studies on UHI effect have already become a hotspot, high-precision UHI investigations in cold regions utilizing remote sensing technologies are still underexplored. To enrich this type of research, we conducted observation experiments and analysis of UHI in cold region during summer based on low-altitude dual-source remote sensing. In this study, a low-altitude observation experiment scheme was designed based on a self-developed low-altitude dual-source remote sensing platform (LADSRSP). According to this scheme, the observation experiments were conducted at the main campus of Zhengzhou University, to synchronously collect dual-source remote sensing data, retrieve land surface temperature (LST) and classify underlying surface. The surface urban heat island intensity (SUHII) and the heat field intensity index (HFII) were calculated to quantitatively characterize the UHI characteristics based on different urban underlying surfaces. The results indicate that the fusion analysis of high-precision thermal infrared and hyperspectral data has successfully constructed the relationship between underlying surface and its temperature characteristics, and has realized the calculation of SUHII with high-precision resolution based on the cool reference of vegetation. Our founding has revealed the characteristics and pattern of UHI distribution in cold region during summer, and has verified the applicability of our LADSRSP and the observation experiments in complex urban thermal environments. This study could enrich the research on UHI effect during summer in cold regions and provide reference for high-precision urban thermal environment observation.