Study of the urban microclimate using thermal UAV. The case of the mid-sized cities of Arica (arid) and Curic′o (Mediterranean), Chile

The study of the urban microclimate requires detailed information that is not available in most cities. The monitoring of climate parameters is reduced to a limited number of stations that are useful for urban climate studies at local or zonal scales. Detailed information is generally obtained through field work and fixed sensors. There are some climate parameters that can be obtained from remote sensors, such as the surface emission temperature, however, this information is only available in medium or low-resolution images from satellite images. Currently, it is possible to generate detailed information with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV). There are not many UAVs that can capture information on the surface emission temperature and those that can are, in general, prohibitively expensive. Only a few years ago a low-cost drone became available, the Mavic 2 dual, equipped with a thermal sensor, which qualitatively captures information from the thermal field. This article proposes the study of the urban microclimate of two mid-size Chilean cities using thermal images captured with the Mavic 2 dual drone, for which it was first necessary to process the images and convert their values to degrees Celsius. The values obtained are compared with those derived from Modis and Landsat satellite images, evalu-ating the correlation of the information.

Automated summary

Studying urban microclimates requires detailed information not readily available in most cities. While climate parameters are usually monitored at a limited number of stations, more detailed information can be obtained through field work, fixed sensors, remote sensors, and drones.