Manalapan High School Physics teacher Raaghav Pandya recently spent time at NASA working with a team of researchers studying Urban Heat Islands. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, Urban Heat Islands “are urbanized areas that experience higher temperatures than outlying areas. Structures such as buildings, roads, and other infrastructure absorb and re-emit the sun’s heat more than natural landscapes such as forests and water bodies. Urban areas, where these structures are highly concentrated and greenery is limited, become “islands” of higher temperatures relative to outlying areas.”

As a part of the group’s study, Mr. Pandya and his colleagues created a technique that is able to identify the cooling effects of green infrastructure against background warming trends associated with urbanization and climate change. The research was published in Sustainable Cities and Society (SCS), an international journal focusing on fundamental and applied research aimed at designing, understanding, and promoting environmentally sustainable and socially resilient cities.