Ilha de calor: reflexões acerca de um conceito

The concept of heat island is related to human activities on the surface and its effect on the lower troposphere, yet it is not clear in the literature, at what time or what difference in air temperature can attest to the existence of the phenomenon in question. Besides this conceptual vulnerability, there are now new possibilities to identify the heat island, such as: continuous recorders of air temperature and relative humidity (data-loggers), weather balloons and satellite imagery, allowing new observations readings and correlations combined between urban geometry and climate parameters. In this context of technological innovations, this paper aims to discuss the concept of heat island employed at the beginning of the 21th century, can be used in current studies of urban climate in the same way. Or it will be the differences inherent in the new observation methods identify different types of heat islands?