Urban heat island (UHI) has been mostly reported as the consequence of accelerated urbanization and industrialization. UHI can be obviously regulated by the cooling island effect of urban green spaces. Thus

growing attention has been paid to understanding the cooling regulation mechanism of urban green spaces. Land surface temperature (LST)

vegetation cover

normalized difference moisture index (NDMI)

reduced simple ratio (RSR)

and urban green spaces in Guangzhou were retrieved using Landsat8 images in autumn and winter. This study focused on the correlation relationships between LST and land surface attributes (such as vegetation cover

NDVI

and RSR) in autumn and winter

and also paid much attention to know how LST was affected by urban green spaces as urban green spaces varied in area and parameter and land surface attributes. The results showed that both UHI magnitude and area are much higher in autumn than in winter. Compared with winter

there was better correlation relationship between land surface attributes and LST in autumn

indicating that better cooling effect could be existed in autumn with higher temperature. However

logarithmic function relationship was existed between LST and RSR. It was indicated that cooling effect of vegetation could be at “saturation” as RSR used

when vegetation cover increased. LST exponentially decreased with buffer distance increased. Cooling effect of urban green spaces was gradually limited

when buffer distance continued to be increased as buffer distance is greater than 300 meters. Cooling effect of urban green spaces was much stronger in autumn than in winter. Furthermore

LST was also negatively correlated with both the area and parameter of urban green spaces and higher correlation coefficient occurred in winter. There was significant correlation relationship between internal LST and land surface attributes of urban green spaces and higher correlation coefficient occurred in autumn. LST difference between internal and external green spaces was not significantly correlated with vegetation cover and RSR in both autumn and winter

except for NDMI in autumn. LST was not directly affected by vegetation cover and RSR. Generally

cooling effect of urban green spaces was obviously better in autumn.