The temporal changes in vegetation index and surface radiant temperature from February-December, 1997 were evaluated for urban and non-urban areas in the Atlanta metropolitan region. Urban and non-urban areas were discerned using a number of urban land cover surrogates, including 1990 1 km2 gridded Census Bureau housing density and so-called "city lights" data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Operational Linescan System (DMSP-OLS). Generally, contrast in vegetation index and surface radiant temperature values between urban and non-urban areas is maximized at the peak of the growing season.