Over the last century the World has witnessed a huge growth of its population; almost all population growth expected for the World in the next years will be concentrated in the urban areas. The anthropogenic activities induce changes in the physical characteristics of the surface (albedo, thermal capacities, heat conductivity, moisture) and have significant implications for energy budget. The heat retention from artificial surfaces impacts the natural energy balance and can exacerbate existing air pollution conditions. The urban heat island (UHI) is the name given to describe the characteristic warmth of both the atmosphere and the surface in cities compared to their surroundings.
The phenomenon of UHI in the city of Rome was examined. To perform this study AATSR data over Rome and its surroundings were extracted in a period of time covered by ENVISAT mission (2003-2006) along with ground-based data from the ARPA Lazio (Regional Agency for Environmental Protection) environmental monitoring stations. During the night the UHI is particularly significant and UHI development from season to season is clear, with a rise in anomaly strength from winter and reaching a maximum during summer. Having analysed the satellite data we can clearly see that there is a strong urban heat island over Rome, caused mainly by anthropogenic sources, mainly traffic and pollutions, evident because the anomalies are more intense along the main routes, in particular in the South-East of the city.

Remote sensing is a key application in global-change science and urban climatology. Urbanization, the conversion of other types of land to uses associated with growth of populations and economy has a great impact on both micro-climate as well as macro-climate. By integrating high-resolution and medium-resolution satellite imagery with other geospatial information, have been investigated several land surface parameters including impervious surfaces and land surface temperatures for Bucharest metropolitan area in Romania. The aim of this study is to examine the changes in land use/cover pattern in a rapidly changing area of Bucharest metropolitan area in relation to urbanization since the 1989s till 2010 and then to investigate the impact of such changes on the intensity and spatial pattern of the UHI effect in the region. Investigation of radiative properties, energy balance and heat fluxes is based on satellite data provided by various sensors Landsat TM, ETM+, MODIS and IKONOS. This paper demonstrates the potential of moderate-and high resolution, multispectral imagery to map and monitor the evolution of the physical urban environment in relation with micro and macroclimate conditions. So called effect of “urban heat island” must be considered mostly for summer periods conditions and large European scale heat waves.

Understanding how propagating signals influence phytoplankton distribution at the euphotic layer is a subject of enormous scientific interest. The proposed mechanisms range from meridional advection, uplift/downlift of the community, and upwelling/downwelling of nutrients. These will increase phytoplankton in a specific area by either gathering them or allowing better conditions for reproduction (i.e., increased access to light or nutrients). It is known that ENSO and its associated propagation play a significant role on ocean circulation and climate variability. In the present study we provide empirical evidence of an immediate and lagged influence of ENSO on SeaWiFS and MODIS Aqua derived global Chlorophyll a concentrations (Chl). We demonstrate that the influence of ENSO on phytoplankton dynamics occurs in well defined oceanic regions, which are neither restricted to the Tropical Pacific nor to a specific timeframe. Chl distributions suggest that zonal phytoplankton communities react in different phases to the shoaling/deepening of the thermocline. An analysis of propagating signals suggests that ENSO driven propagation explains a substantial amount of interannual phytoplankton variability throughout the Tropical Pacific. Thus, to better understand the importance of ENSO on phytoplankton distribution, further work has to be done on ENSO driven propagation and its associated dynamics.