The Urban Heat Island (UHI) as a result of urbanisation processes remains a compelling focus of urban climate research. With the advance of thermal remote sensing, surface urban heat island (sUHI) quantified by the land surface temperature from satellite observations becomes more prevalent in studying the UHI effects. The difference and the physical linkage between sUHI and urban canopy air heat island (aUHI) measured by Urban Meteorological Network (UMN) intrigue the whole urban climate community. The complicated relationship between the intensity of sUHI and aUHI across cities limits the application of the thermal remote sensing in urban environment. This thesis explores the relationship between nocturnal sUHI and aUHI (the sUHI-aUHI relationship) by applying a transferable method, using MODIS satellite and UMN in Oklahoma City, US and Birmingham, UK. Specific patterns of the sUHI-aUHI relationship under different seasons, wind speed conditions and land characteristics are found in both cities. The comparisons between the two cities highlight the strong controls of the local climate and the configurations of the UMN on the differences of the sUHI-aUHI relationship across cities, which are considerable factors in order to generalise this relationship globally
