Spatial variations in urban vegetation abundance and surface temperature in New York City. Vegetation fraction estimates (upper image) derived from Landsat 7 imagery show intraurban variations of several tens of percent in residential areas and even greater differences between suburbs and industrial areas (Small, 2001a). Surface temperature variations (lower image) show a direct correspondence to vegetation abundance with more densely vegetated areas having lower surface temperatures. These spatial variations influence absorption and reflection of solar radiation and evapotranspiration thereby influencing microclimate and air quality. Landsat’s consistent global coverage allows vegetation fraction and surface temperature maps like this to be produced for every major city in the world. When combined with in situ measurements, these maps provide inputs for regional scale climate models.