Use case: cities and regions

Mapping urban heat islands

Thermal satellite sensors measure the temperature of roofs, roads, parks and water across a whole city. Mapped over hot days, this land surface temperature shows which districts heat up most, and maps of sealing and green cover help explain why. A city can use the result to decide where shade, trees or unsealed ground should come first.

Reference
UC-01
Technologies
  • Earth observation
Industry
Challenge
Heat and climate adaptation
Updated
Published by
LETO SPACE

01Technology

How it works

Thermal infrared sensors on satellites observe land surface temperature Source: European Space Agency (ESA), accessed 6 October 2026European Space Agency (ESA)Copernicus Sentinel Expansion missionsaccessed 6 October 2026Open source (opens esa.int): how hot roofs, asphalt, lawns and water are at the moment of the overpass.

Free thermal data come from Landsat 8 and 9. Their thermal bands have a ground sampling distance of 100 m, each satellite repeats its track every 16 days, and the two together every 8 days Source: U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), accessed 6 October 2026U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)Landsat 9accessed 6 October 2026Open source (opens usgs.gov). Sentinel-3 provides land surface temperature data that can be used to detect urban heat islands Source: EU Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA), 26 May 2026EU Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA)EU Space Market Report 2026, Issue 1: Urban development and cultural heritage26 May 2026Open source (opens euspa.europa.eu). The Copernicus Land Monitoring Service adds hourly estimates from geostationary satellites, which show how heat builds up over a day Source: Copernicus Land Monitoring Service, accessed 6 October 2026Copernicus Land Monitoring ServiceBeyond the heat map: telling the full story of heatwaves with Land Surface Temperatureaccessed 6 October 2026Open source (opens land.copernicus.eu), at a resolution of about 3 km Source: Copernicus Land Monitoring Service, accessed 8 October 2026Copernicus Land Monitoring ServiceLand Surface Temperature 2018-present (raster 3km), global, hourly, version 3accessed 8 October 2026Open source (opens land.copernicus.eu).

A heat map shows where it is hot. To see why, it is combined with layers that describe the city's surfaces: the Copernicus imperviousness layer maps sealed ground across Europe at 10 m Source: Copernicus Land Monitoring Service, accessed 6 October 2026Copernicus Land Monitoring ServiceImperviousness Density 2018 (raster 10 m and 100 m), Europe, 3-yearlyaccessed 6 October 2026Open source (opens land.copernicus.eu), and the Urban Atlas maps land use and street trees for nearly 800 European cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants Source: Copernicus Land Monitoring Service, accessed 6 October 2026Copernicus Land Monitoring ServiceUrban Atlas Land Cover/Land Use and Street Tree Layer 2012 and 2018: Product User Manualaccessed 6 October 2026Open source (opens library.land.copernicus.eu).

  • L1 Base mapTerrain, river and parcels
  • L2 HeatSurface temperature
  • L3 Green spaceParks and trees
Illustrative map, not real data. Surface heat and green space over the same district, so that hot spots can be compared with green cover.

More detail is coming. ESA's Land Surface Temperature Monitoring mission (LSTM) is set to join the Copernicus Sentinel satellites in 2028, with a spatial resolution of 50 m (a sampling distance of about 37 m directly below the satellite) and a revisit of two days with two satellites, and lists urban heat islands among its applications Source: European Space Agency (ESA), SentiWiki, accessed 6 October 2026European Space Agency (ESA), SentiWikiLSTM (Copernicus Land Surface Temperature Monitoring mission)accessed 6 October 2026Open source (opens sentiwiki.copernicus.eu) Source: European Space Agency (ESA), accessed 6 October 2026European Space Agency (ESA)Copernicus Sentinel Expansion missionsaccessed 6 October 2026Open source (opens esa.int).

02Deliverables

What you get

Heat mapping delivers planning inputs, not finished decisions.

  • A land surface temperature map of the whole city for selected hot days or as a summer composite.
  • Hotspots by district or block, ranked and set against sealing and green cover, so that possible causes can be compared.
  • Exposure overlays with population data, to show where vulnerable groups live in the hottest areas. Earth observation can map temperature differences across a city to alert health authorities to risks for specific groups Source: EU Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA), 26 May 2026EU Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA)EU Space Market Report 2026, Issue 1: Urban development and cultural heritage26 May 2026Open source (opens euspa.europa.eu).
  • Repeat maps in later summers, to follow whether new trees or unsealed squares change the surface temperature where they were planned.

EUSPA links the growth of urban climate applications to policy attention on heat, including the increasing appointment of municipal heat officers Source: EU Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA), 26 May 2026EU Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA)EU Space Market Report 2026, Issue 1: Urban development and cultural heritage26 May 2026Open source (opens euspa.europa.eu).

03Limits

Limits

04Use cases

05Next steps

Find providers and get started

Commercial providers turn thermal data into heat maps and microclimate analyses. The Spacegraph marketplace has a category for urban heat and microclimate.

Before you buy, decide which question the map must answer and in what detail. That is the first step of our consulting: we start from your climate goals, check where heat data helps and rank the options.

Strategy and use cases

Frequently asked questions

Q1Which satellite data is used to map urban heat islands, and how often is it updated?

Free thermal data come from Landsat 8 and 9: their thermal bands have a ground sampling distance of 100 m, and the two satellites together pass over the same place every 8 days Source: U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), accessed 6 October 2026U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)Landsat 9accessed 6 October 2026Open source (opens usgs.gov). Sentinel-3 also provides land surface temperature data Source: EU Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA), 26 May 2026EU Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA)EU Space Market Report 2026, Issue 1: Urban development and cultural heritage26 May 2026Open source (opens euspa.europa.eu), and the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service offers hourly estimates from geostationary satellites at a resolution of about 3 km Source: Copernicus Land Monitoring Service, accessed 8 October 2026Copernicus Land Monitoring ServiceLand Surface Temperature 2018-present (raster 3km), global, hourly, version 3accessed 8 October 2026Open source (opens land.copernicus.eu). Each image is usable only where the sky was clear.

Q2Does a satellite heat map show the temperature residents feel?

No. Satellites measure the temperature of the surface itself. What residents feel is the air temperature, which is measured by weather stations or calculated with urban climate models such as UrbClim at 2 m above the ground Source: European Environment Agency (EEA), 29 April 2024European Environment Agency (EEA)Modelled urban heat island effect for the city of Antwerpen, Belgium29 April 2024Open source (opens eea.europa.eu). Both views belong in a heat plan: the surface map shows where materials store heat, the air temperature shows the exposure of people.

Q3How do we start a pilot for heat mapping?

Start with the decision the map should support, for example where to plant trees first or which squares to unseal, and with the people who will act on it. Then choose the data that matches that decision in detail and timing, and test it on a few districts before the whole city.

Sources (9)

  1. U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), accessed 6 October 2026Landsat 9 (opens usgs.gov)
  2. European Space Agency (ESA), SentiWiki, accessed 6 October 2026LSTM (Copernicus Land Surface Temperature Monitoring mission) (opens sentiwiki.copernicus.eu)
  3. European Space Agency (ESA), accessed 6 October 2026Copernicus Sentinel Expansion missions (opens esa.int)
  4. Copernicus Land Monitoring Service, accessed 6 October 2026Beyond the heat map: telling the full story of heatwaves with Land Surface Temperature (opens land.copernicus.eu)
  5. Copernicus Land Monitoring Service, accessed 8 October 2026Land Surface Temperature 2018-present (raster 3km), global, hourly, version 3 (opens land.copernicus.eu)
  6. European Environment Agency (EEA), 29 April 2024Modelled urban heat island effect for the city of Antwerpen, Belgium (opens eea.europa.eu)
  7. EU Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA), 26 May 2026EU Space Market Report 2026, Issue 1: Urban development and cultural heritage (opens euspa.europa.eu)
  8. Copernicus Land Monitoring Service, accessed 6 October 2026Imperviousness Density 2018 (raster 10 m and 100 m), Europe, 3-yearly (opens land.copernicus.eu)
  9. Copernicus Land Monitoring Service, accessed 6 October 2026Urban Atlas Land Cover/Land Use and Street Tree Layer 2012 and 2018: Product User Manual (opens library.land.copernicus.eu)

Contact

Planning heat measures for next summer? Talk to us before you buy a heat map.

Prefer to talk?

Tell one of our experts about your project. Together we work out where you stand, whether satellite data and AI can help and what a sensible next step would be.

Both calls are free of charge and take place online. You choose a date in our booking calendar.