LaRC
Arizona Health & Air Quality
Phoenix Rising: Urban Heat Island in Maricopa County

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>> Daniel: In a world where rising temperatures in urban cityscapes threaten the well-being of a thriving metropolis, one team of intrepid scientists will go above and beyond to combat this hazardous heat. This is: Phoenix Rising.
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>> Teresa: Maricopa County, home to the city of Phoenix, is located in central Arizona - one of the hottest regions of the United States. By day, temperatures soar in excess of 100 degrees Farenheit.
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At night, the desert radiates the heat back into space and cools to a more humane 80 degrees.
>>Daniel: But in the city of Phoenix, a different story plays out.In a phenomenon known as the urban heat island effect, the concrete and asphalt surfaces retain the heat they absorbed. Without anywhere to go, the temperatures climb even higher during the day, and the relief that should have come with the setting sun is noticeably absent.
>> Richard: For those residents who live without air conditioning or work outdoors, the summer months can be deadly. Heat exhaustion, heat stroke, and the worsening of cardiac and respiratory illnesses have endangered the lives of over 600 people in the past ten years alone.
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>> Teresa: I like that one right there.
>> Richard: Dan, we have a new assignment. It won't be easy.
>> Daniel: If it were easy, they wouldn't be asking us.
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Let's get to work, team.
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Building on the work of Arizona Health & Air Quality 1,
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our team attempted to aid Maricopa County in monitoring heat severity.
>>Ashley: Land surface temperature was gathered from the Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager and the MODIS sensor onboard the Aqua satellite, while the Maricopa County Department of Public Health provided us with the locations of their heat relief centers and neighborhoods without functioning air conditioning.
>>Teresa: Using the coding languages Python and R, we created a tool that automates the production of heat vulnerability maps. The tool will allow our partners to pinpoint those areas of Maricopa in need of assistance, and to examine trends in heat severity.