Nocturnal Surface Urban Heat Island in Damascus

This dataset accompanies the study "Nocturnal Surface Urban Heat Island in Damascus: A Land Cover-Based Quantitative Spatial Analysis in a Semi-Arid Environment" and provides the data and processing outputs used to analyze the spatial and temporal characteristics of the nocturnal Surface Urban Heat Island (SUHI) in Damascus, Syria, during the period 2023–2025.

The dataset includes processed nighttime Land Surface Temperature (LST) data derived from the MODIS MOD11A2 Version 6.1 product, topographic variables extracted from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) Digital Elevation Model, land-cover information, intermediate analytical outputs, and statistical datasets used in the spatial and regression analyses presented in the study.

Nighttime LST observations were selected because they provide a more stable representation of urban–rural thermal contrasts and are less affected by direct solar heating. The accompanying datasets support the assessment of SUHI intensity, spatial variability, seasonal dynamics, and the relationship between land-cover characteristics and nocturnal thermal patterns in a semi-arid urban environment.

The data were processed using Google Earth Engine for initial extraction and filtering and analyzed in Python using open-source geospatial and statistical libraries. These files are provided to ensure transparency, reproducibility, and reuse of the study results.