The numbers of researches dedicated to the UHI study considerably increased in recent years. This
investigations show that anthropogenic stress in the form of powerful sources of gas and aerosol
pollutants as well as water vapor and supplemental heat sources can greatly influence the intensity
and the form of the environment response in the large industrial cities and megalopolises. These
factors lead to special climate formation in megalopolis. For study of UHI ordinary were used nearsurface data from meteorological stations at the city and in suburb. As a result, the fundamental
factors of the UHI formation were formulated (Oke, 1977).
Nevertheless, it is clear that UHI is one of the atmospheric phenomena, which requires further
study. For this study it is necessary to have a representative data on the vertical thermal structure
over the cities. Usually for this purpose balloon-borne instrumentation (such as free and tethered
sounding balloons or constant volume free balloons), aircraft techniques and facilities, tower sensors
were used. But these devices are costly and cannot provide continuous measurements. So during
last two decades or so, atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) observations have been enhanced by
remote sensing techniques.
Our technology was based on using passive microwave remote sensing or radiometric method.
These passive techniques involve measurements of radiation emitted from the atmosphere, instead of
detection of scattered energy due to natural or artificial atmospheric targets. One of the advantages
of microwave radiometric device includes the possibility to provide measurements in practically all
weather conditions in urban area. It also allows continuous unattended measurements, which
provide long time series and time-height cross sections.
For the investigation of UHI in Moscow were used three passive microwave radiometers simultaneously. This simultaneous measurement had two objectives. The first was to determine a Megacity
impact to the ABL parameters which led to creation of UHI. The second objective was to investigate
the ABL stability and its influence a radiation balance near the ground surface.