Approximation of COVID-19 effect on land surface temperature using MODIS data over YSR district, India

Abstract

This work involved using satellite-derived data to know the disparities in Land Surface Temperatures (LST) due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To know the effect of this pandemic on LST, MODIS data from three years before the pandemic (2017-2019) was procured and compared with post-pandemic data (2020-2022). It was observed that there is a decreasing trend in the LST, ranging from 17.13 to 15.76 in terms of average LST difference. The northern portion of the study area has pronounced LST variation than the southern portion. It was observed that post COVID LST has a strong positive correlation with pre COVID LST. The LST of 2022 has a positive correlation with the LST of 2017 and a slight correlation with the LST from 2018 to 2021. LST time series plots were presented in this study along with the GIS maps. This work supports the notion that COVID-19 has lowered LST relatively.