Rapid urbanization is changing the land use and land cover in many parts of the world, dramatically increasing the land surface temperature (LST). This work highlights the seasonally varying influence of various surface biophysical characteristics on the LST of Bhubaneswar, a rapidly urbanizing tropical city in eastern India, from 2003 to 2024. Since the city is mainly dominated by urban land covers, with abundant vegetation and waterbodies scattered throughout, normalized difference indices of built-up, vegetation, water, moisture, bareness, impervious surfaces, and surface albedo were considered for the analysis. Urban indices were found to be most correlated with LST during winter and pre-monsoon. In contrast, water and bareness indices had the highest correlation during the post-monsoon seasons...
