The use of thermography to highlight the relationship between air and surface temperatures in urban scenes

Abstract

The correlation between air and surface temperatures is recurrently used as a descriptor of the urban climate within built environments. The aim of this paper is to explore the possibilities of time-lapse thermography to visualize this relationship in time and space. To this end, thermograms are colorized using a relative-to-air temperature scale, instead of the usual absolute one. This approach was tested for two deep urban canyons belonging to cities with different climates. Relative-to-air thermography has two main advantages: it facilitates comparisons between the thermal responses of urban scenes under different climates and makes convective energy exchanges more comprehensive.