April 4, 2000

Steve Roy
Media Relations Department
(256) 544-0034
steve.roy@msfc.nasa.gov
http://www.msfc.nasa.gov/news

RELEASE: 00-105

High in the Sky, NASA 'Heat Hunters' Combat Urban Heat Island Phenomenon

NASA technology developed for use in the cold reaches of space is helping researchers fight back against sweltering urban heat here on Earth.

Dr. Dale Quattrochi and Dr. Jeff Luvall are "heat hunters" for the Global Hydrology and Climate Center, managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. For more than three years, they've worked with other NASA centers and the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as state and local governments and city planners across the country, to determine ways to make our cities more habitable. Their goal: to create healthy, sustainable environments for current residents and future generations.

On Wednesday, April 5, Quattrochi, Luvall and fellow NASA researcher Maurice Estes will discuss their research at the annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers, convening today at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh, Pa. Their presentation, "The Urban Fabric of the City as It Affects Thermal Energy Responses Derived from Remote Sensing Data," is part of a series of lectures on city geography, and begins Wednesday at 9:20 a.m.

Cities often are dominated by asphalt and concrete and contain little natural vegetation to shade buildings, block solar radiation and cool the air. Thus, urban centers get much hotter during the day than rural areas. That heat is stored and released at night, creating hot-air "domes" that can keep temperatures in affected cities up to 10 degrees F warmer at night than in suburbs or neighboring woodlands.

The effects are dramatic. Cities suffer a marked upswing in ozone formation -- a major pollutant and health threat to human beings. On sweltering summer days, city power supplies often are taxed by increased air conditioning use, as citizens struggle to beat the heat. And those domes of trapped, heated air can actually create their own weather patterns over urban areas, increasing rainstorms.

Using remote sensing technology developed for the space program, the heat hunters use data obtained from NASA aircraft and satellites to map patterns of heating and cooling across the urban landscape. This information helps city planners determine ways to reduce heat islands, such as installing reflective roofing and paving materials to bounce thermal energy back into the atmosphere.

Quattrochi and Luvall have conducted studies in Atlanta, Ga.; Sacramento, Calif.; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Baton Rouge, La. Further tests in other metropolitan areas are planned.

More about the Global Hydrology and Climate Center
The Global Hydrology and Climate Center is a joint venture between government and academia to study the global water cycle and its effect on Earth's climate. Funded by NASA and its academic partners and jointly operated by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., and the University of Alabama in Huntsville, the Center conducts research in a number of critical areas. Satellite tracking of hurricanes promises to improve global severe-weather forecasting capabilities; research into lightning activity is providing new insight on tornado formation; and NASA remote sensing technologies explore new ways to improve the health of our cities, aid farm productivity and identify outbreaks of disease.

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