Emissivity mapping over urban areas using a classification-based approach: Application to the Dual-use European Security IR Experiment (DESIREX)

In this work a methodology to provide an emissivity map of an urban area is presented. The methodology is applied to the city of Madrid (Spain) using data provided by the Airborne Hyperspectral Scanner (AHS) in 2008. From the data a classification map with twelve different urban materials was created. Each material was then characterized by a different emissivity, whose values were obtained from the application of the TES algorithm to in situ measurements and values extracted from the ASTER spectral library. This new emissivity map could be used as a basis for determining the temperature of the city and to understand the urban heat island effect in terms of spatial distribution and size.

► High spatial and temporal remote sensing imagery over an urban area. ► Maximum Likelihood as a classification decision rule and a kappa coefficient of 70%. ► TES algorithm is applied to in situ data and emissivity values are assigned to classes. ► An emissivity map is obtained for the city of Madrid (Spain).