Exploration of Thermal Activity within the Three Hot Springs Area in United Arab Emirates Using Landsat 8/ OLI-TIRS Images

Satellite thermal infrared remote sensing is nowadays an important and efficient techniques to explore and monitor the thermal ground around active volcanoes or hot spring regions in the world due to unstable ground, land use restricted as a park and higher cost of ground observations. Landsat 8 OLI-TIR sensors images were used in this study to observe the thermal status of three hot spring areas in UAE for the first time in the year of 2017. We used Landsat 8 TIR band 10 to estimate land surface temperature using mono-window algorithm, Normalised directional vegetation index (NDVI) threshold method for emissivity, Stefan Boltzmann law for radiative heat flux and heat discharge rate using a relationship coefficient. The highest maximum land surface temperature (LST) was obtained about 43 °C, 40 °C and 27 °C, respectively in the area of Ain Faida (AF), Green Mubazzarah (GM) and Ain Khatt (AK) hot spring area. The LST was about 13 °C, 10 °C and 4 °C above ambient on the pixel (30*30 m) average temperature, although the point LST might be higher than these. The landcover shows about 77%, 95% and 87% area of bared or desert land, 21%, 4% and 13% of mixed region, respectively in the study area of GM, AF and AK hot spring. Fully vegetated area was found only in GM area about 5% of total study area. Water bodies were about 1% only in the study areas of GM and AF. The highest radiative heat flux (RHF) obtained about 68 W/m2, 83 W/m2 and 21 W/m2 respectively in the GM, AF and AK spring area in United Arab Emirates (UAE). Total radiative heat losses were estimated about 157 MW, 530 MW and 15 MW respectively in the three hot spring areas. Total Heat discharge rate (HDR) was estimated about 1013 MW, 3423 MW and 94 MW respectively from GM, AF, and AK hot spring area using the relationship coefficient HDR and RHF i.e., 6.49. The study shows that the LST and RHF was increased with decreasing NDVI value i.e., bared or desert shows higher value than vegetated. We can infer from this study that the satellite remote sensing could be used for estimating or monitoring the thermal components of hot springs in UAE and any other part of world in a cost effective and efficient way.