Nocturnal Land Surface Temperature Cooling in Urbanizing Florida

Florida is a unique setting for land surface temperature (LST) research because of its warm climate, flat terrain, heterogenous land cover, rapid population growth, and urban expansion. Two sun-synchronous satellites, MODIS Terra and MODIS Aqua, sample LST twice daily: Terra at approximately 10:30 AM and PM local sun time, and Aqua at approximately 1:30 AM and PM local sun time. This study leverages these differences in observation time to examine thermal inertia and nighttime cooling rates in Florida in the 21^st century, examining time series of diurnal temperature patterns using a Bayesian changepoint and trend analysis algorithm. Urbanizing regions are hypothesized to exhibit increasing thermal inertia, higher nocturnal LSTs, and decreasing diurnal temperature ranges. Results show the influence of land cover changes on heat retention, with implications for climate resilience and human heat exposure.