Nighttime satellite land surface temperature for urban applications: achievements, challenges, and future prospects

Abstract

Satellite-derived nighttime land surface temperature (LST) provides unique insights into urban thermal dynamics, such as nocturnal urban heat island effects, differentiated from daytime LST. Recent advances in satellite technology and upcoming missions promise high spatiotemporal resolution nighttime LST, unlocking new opportunities for urban studies. This study presents a comprehensive review of 420 peer-reviewed papers published between 2016 and 2024 to identify the trends in how nighttime LST has been used in the urban application and summarize the progress, key achievements, and current constraints in six main application topics: urban heat island analysis, heat and health impacts, associations with greenspace and air temperature, synergetic usage with numerical models, and other interdisciplinary applications. Based on our review, we suggested five main future directions for nighttime LST studies, including improving nighttime LST data resolution and quality, advancing modeling techniques, expanding geographic and climatic coverage, exploring emerging topics such as anthropogenic heat and nighttime heatwaves, and integrating nighttime LST with multidimensional urban data. Further research using nighttime LST is expected to understand better nocturnal thermal dynamics and their impacts on public health, energy use, and environmental sustainability.