NASA detects ‘Heat Islands’ in extreme Indian heatwave as Delhi records 49 degrees

In the midst of India's unprecedented heatwave, equipment aboard NASA's space station records scorching temperatures in metropolitan areas near India's capital New Delhi. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA JPL) on May 13 had released an image on Twitter depicting Delhi's ground temperatures at midnight on May 5. This photograph displays the urban and agricultural regions, northwest of Delhi (the big red patch in the bottom right seen in the image below), which are home to around 28 million people, according to a report from NASA. This picture comprises around 12,350 square kilometres. 

Furthermore, these temperatures have been recorded from space by NASA's Ecosystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station instrument (ECOSTRESS), which has the best spatial resolution of any satellite sensor. 

Since mid-March, India along with Pakistan has been engulfed by a persistent heatwave that has resulted in scores of fatalities, fires, increased air pollution, as well as lower crop production. 

In addition to this, as per the report from NASA, human actions and the materials utilised in the built environment cause cities to be significantly warmer than the surrounding countryside. These urban "heat islands" are vividly defined in the photograph.

Temperatures during the nighttime in Delhi had exceeded 35 degrees Celsius

Temperatures during the nighttime in Delhi and numerous smaller villages had exceeded 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit), reaching roughly 39 degrees C (102 degrees Fahrenheit), whereas agricultural areas adjacent dropped to around 15 degrees C (60 degrees Fahrenheit). According to this data, city people are experiencing temperatures that are significantly higher than the average temperatures recorded for their localities. 

Apart from this, ECOSTRESS monitors the ground temperature, which is quite comparable to nighttime air temperature (although the ground may be warmer than the air in daylight time). In 2018, the instrument was deployed to the Space Station. Its major goal is to determine plant water usage and stress thresholds, providing information on their potential to adapt to a warmer environment. Other heat-related occurrences, such as this heatwave, are also recorded by ECOSTRESS. Its high-resolution photos, which have a pixel size of around 225 feet (70 metres) by 125 feet (38 metres), are a significant tool for comprehending features of the weather event that regular observation networks could ignore, according to the NASA report.  

(Image: Twitter@NASAJPL)