​      Major thermal features incorporated in our study consist of bodies of water and a comparison of rural and urban areas surrounding and within the Houston area. The Houston area is characterized as a subtropical climate zone and experiences an average temperature range spanning from 45 degrees Fahrenheit to 93 degrees Fahrenheit (Coplin_Galloway_year). 

      Within 17 years (2000 to 2017), the population of Houston has grown from approximately 3.4 million to 4.6 million. As a result of that, clearly there has been a significant infrastructure expansion to support the population growth, which in return decreases the amount of vegetation in highly urbanized areas. Major vegetation in Houston expands in the outer border of Downtown and follows the bayou system extensively (EPA U.S. Houston Profile 2014).

      The stratigraphic units of the area encompass sand and shale bed deposits from the Cretaceous Period (HGS 1961). The emissivity of an object is its ability to radiate energy in comparison to a blackbody which has an emissivity value of 1.0 (Lillesand_etal_2015). The emissivity value of concrete, primarily found in urban areas is averaged at 0.94 in comparison to the emissivity values of dry vegetation found in rural areas which range from 0.88 to 0.94 (Lillesand_etal_2015). In urban areas containing objects with high emissivity, the temperature data tracked by sensors may be higher than those found in rural areas with objects producing low emissivity.