The last global composite of the earths night lights was created in 2003. Pdf dmspols nighttime lights imagery and urban population. The growing archives of imagery from various earthobserving satellites have stimulated the development of innovative methods for change detection in longterm time series. Observations on nighttime lights serve as a unique proxy of human activity, and numerous studies have shown the relationship between nighttime lights data and economic activity doll et al. Linking socioeconomic factors to urban growth by using. We examine three key variables extracted from a preprocessed stable nighttime lights data set. The oceans are shaded a very dark blue and the land is shaded a slightly lighter blue so that they can be distinguished. May 01, 2000 night time satellite imagery acquired between october 1994 and march 1995 is here exploited to derive economic and energyrelated global maps. This global view of earths city lights is a composite assembled from data. Remotely sensed data on artificial night time lights ntl have been shown to correlate with gross domestic product in developed countries. Advances in using multitemporal night time lights satellite imagery to detect, estimate, and monitor socioeconomic dynamics. In night, elie wiesel uses imagery to describe the horrors of the holocaust and allows the reader to comprehend the. By considering the lit area of a city, and combining this with ancillary statistical information, an analysis was performed designed to investigate the potential of night time imagery for quantitative estimation of global socioeconomic parameters. Nasas night time satellite images show huge growth of indian cities.
Ciesin thematic guide to nighttime light remote sensing and. Night time light imagery stands unique amongst remote sensing data sources as it offers a uniquely human view of the earths surface. Li and li 2014 have utilized time series dmspols nighttime light imagery to assess the syrian civil war, and their results show that the nighttime light loss from 2011 to 20 was 74 per cent. For each tile, we extract vector representations from the top layer of the model, before the softmax classi. Dmspols nighttime light imagery for urban population. Dec 09, 2011 ebener s, murray c, tandon a, elvidge cc. Janpeter muller, chris doll university college london chris. Due to the lacking of onboard calibration on ols, and the overglow of the lights resources, the information about the night lights cannot be extracted directly. This study examines the validity of nighttime lights as a measure for rural electri. We explore the trend in nighttime lights for the longterm conflict in and around chechnya in the north caucasus of russia and the short, but intense, war. Fluctuations in anthropogenic nighttime lights from satellite imagery for five cities in niger and nigeria. Modeling the distribution of human population with night time satellite imagery and gridded population of the world pecora 15land satellite information ivisprs commission ifieos 2002 conference proceedings figure 1. Population bias in nighttime lights imagery article pdf available in remote sensing letters 109. Jun 26, 2017 this article describes the algorithms developed for the production of highquality global viirs night time lights.
Linking socioeconomic factors to urban growth by using night. One of the most popular earth observation data sets among economists recently has been night time lights. Night time lights the night time lights dataset used in this analysis is the world stable light dataset, which was produced using time series data from the defense meteorological satellite program dmsp operational linescan system ols for the period 1 october 1994 to 30 april 1995 elvidge et al. Janpeter muller, chris doll university college london. Nasa has released an update of its popular earth at night composite imagery. The use of nighttime lights satellite imagery as a measure. Moreover, the availability of highquality data remains limited. We tested two different multitemporal remote sensing datasets and techniques for. Viirs daynight band quick guide by nasa sport why is. Using nighttime satellite imagery to visualize emergy. Using remotely sensed nighttime light as a proxy for. The presence of lighting across the globe is almost entirely due to some form of human activity be it settlements, shipping fleets, gas flaring or fires associated with swidden agriculture. This threshold is often easily exceeded in very bright urban cores and does not allow the night time light data to capture any growth in the city center. Nighttime light observations from remote sensing provide us with a.
The dmsp ols system consists of a panchromatic visible and nearinfraredvnir band anda thermal band. Mapping urban transitions using multitemporal landsat and. Night time lights datasets noaangdc paleblu data portal. Nightlights imagery by noaas earth observation group privacy policy. Request pdf the use of nighttime lights satellite imagery as a measure of australias regional electricity consumption and population distribution satellite imagery of nighttime lights. There is a broad base of science users for viirs night time lights products. Remote sensing of nighttime light request pdf researchgate. Night time satellite imagery data this paper describes evorts at estimating the population of every country of the world using the stable night time lights dataset produced from hundreds of orbits from the dmsp ols elvidgeetal. The use of nighttime lights satellite imagery as a measure of australias regional electricity consumption and population distribution. In contrast, using nighttime lights, mohan and strobl 2017 are. By considering the lit area of a city, and combining this with ancillary statistical information, an analysis was performed designed to investigate the potential of nighttime imagery for quantitative estimation of global socioeconomic parameters. To assess the effectiveness of health interventions it is critical to monitor the spatial and temporal changes in the health indicators of populations and outcomes across varying levels of poverty. The use of nighttime lights satellite imagery as a. This article describes the algorithms developed for the production of highquality global viirs nighttime lights.
Researchers have found positive correlations across countries between night time lights data and several socioeconomic variables. Fluctuations in anthropogenic nighttime lights from. Studies using ntl data from dmspols and suomi npp viirs dnb are. Nighttime lights of the human settlements hereafter, stable lights are seen as a valuable proxy of social economic activity and greenhouse gas emissions at the subnational level. Ciesin thematic guide to nighttime light remote sensing. Existing measures of poverty based on income, consumption or assets are difficult to compare across geographic settings and are expensive. Despite the great progress in the recent years, nighttime light remote sensing is still in a primary stage of development. Despite the great progress in the recent years, nighttime light remote sensing is still.
Pdf advances in using multitemporal nighttime lights. Fuell 2, anita leroy 2, matthew smith 2, deirdre kann 3, david bernhardt 4, nezette rydell 5, and robert cox 6. The urban transition that has emerged over the past quarter century poses new challenges for mapping land coverland use change lcluc. Dynamics and spatial distribution of global nighttime lights arxiv. Inferring nighttime satellite imagery from human mobility. Remote sensing of nighttime light is a relatively new. The nasa black marble algorithm produces cloudfree imagery that has been corrected for atmospheric, terrain, lunar brdf, thermal, and straylight effects. Population density, 1990 ciesin, 2000 night time lights. Meanwhile, growing awareness of adverse impacts of. The older is the operational linescan system ols sys.
By analyzing the location, frequency, and appearance of lights observed in an image times series, it is possible to distinguish four primary types of lights present at the earths surface. Modeling the distribution of human population with night. Dmspols single orbits were used to generate a dmsp stable light mosaic for 2002, in. With this data, it is possible to detect clouds illuminated by moonlight, lights from cities and towns, industrial sites, gas flares, fires, lightning, and aurora. Before any process, the night lights images should be calibrated.
The objective of this study is to model the light pollution spatial pattern, and monitor changes in trends of spatial distribution from 1992 to 2012 in china using nighttime light imagery from the defense meteorological satellite program operational linescan system. Simulation of representative nocturnal satellite imagery for urban areas with. This article analyses dmspols night time imagery as an information source to detect human settlements and to estimate the urban population in the amazon region. Imagery is the use of sensory details to enhance description in literature. Nighttime lights the nighttime lights dataset used in this analysis is the world stable light dataset, which was produced using time series data from the defense meteorological satellite program dmsp operational linescan system ols for the period 1 october 1994 to 30 april 1995 elvidge et al. Explaining seasonal fluctuations of measles in niger using. A global inventory of urban corridors based on perceptions. A global, long term look at links to socioeconomic trends jeremy proville1, daniel zavalaaraiza2, gernot wagner3 1 office of economic policy and analysis, environmental defense fund, new york, new york, united states of america, 2 climate and energy program, environmental defense fund, austin, texas, united states of. Advances in using multitemporal nighttime lights satellite. Detecting the effects of wars in the caucasus regions of. Night time imagery provides an intuitively graspable view of our planet, says william stefanov. In particular, nighttime lights are used as a proxy measure of nonrenewable empower. A digital archive of the data is available starting with the year 1992. This article analyses dmspols nighttime imagery as an information source to.
Generating the nighttime light of the human settlements by. Amaral 2003 considered that dmsp nighttime light imagery generated from a more representative time series would more precisely represent the urban population distribution. This map shows where earths nighttime lights have increased in blue and dimmed in pink between 2012 and 2016 based on data from nasas suominpp. Remote sensing of night time lights within urban areas. Nighttime satellite imagery data this paper describes evorts at estimating the population of every country of the world using the stable nighttime lights dataset produced from hundreds of orbits from the dmsp ols elvidgeetal. We used nighttime lights data made available by the u. The newer viirsdnb nighttime light data is also better than dmspols data in. Nighttime satellite imagery acquired between october 1994 and march 1995 is here exploited to derive economic and energyrelated global maps. Remote sensing of nighttime lights within urban areas. Advances in using multitemporal nighttime lights satellite imagery to detect, estimate, and monitor socioeconomic dynamics article pdf available in remote sensing of environment 192. Doll1 abstract nighttime light imagery stands unique amongst remote sensing data sources as. Nighttime light ntl imagery acquired by remote sensing technology intuitively exhibit the distributions of artificial nocturnal radiances, which is an increasingly.
Population density, 1990 ciesin, 2000 nighttime lights. Dmsp night time light images were also used in regard to human population density relations. Doll1 abstract nighttime light imagery stands unique amongst remote sensing data sources as it offers a uniquely human view of the earths surface. Modelling the distribution of human population with nighttime lights imagery and gridded population of the world pecora 15land satellite information ivisprs commission ifieos conference proceedings. Since the 1970s nighttime satellite images of the earth from space have provided a striking illustration of the extent of artificial light. Nighttime light imagery stands unique amongst remote sensing data sources as it offers a uniquely human view of the earths surface. Advances in using multitemporal nighttime lights satellite imagery to. This particular visualization shows only the lights generated from electricity. What is an example of imagery in night by elie wiesel. National oceanographic and atmospheric administration noaa. There is a broad base of science users for viirs nighttime lights products. Figure 1b, which indicates the boundary that separates urban areas from surrounding rural areas based on ntl images. The global demography project, technical report tr956.
National geophysical data center of the us national oceanic and atmospheric administration. While this innovative use of daytime imagery substantially improves on the use of night time lights alone, it is not necessarily optimal for predicting poverty rates. The urban development is closed linked to the human society development. Secondly, night time light data is saturated at a certain threshold of light intensity. Fuell2, anita leroy2, matthew smith2, deirdre kann3, david bernhardt4, nezette rydell5, and robert cox6 1nasa shortterm prediction research and transition sport ensco, inc. Since the late 1990s, remotely sensed nighttime lights ntl satellite imagery has been shown to correlate with socioeconomic parameters including urbanization, economic activity, and population. He and xiaofeng li, reflecting the immense use of night light imagery by. When the top two quintiles are excluded from their sample, restricting the sample to those below twice the international poverty line, the r2 falls precipitously, to about 0. Apr 29, 2017 this map shows where earths nighttime lights have increased in blue and dimmed in pink between 2012 and 2016 based on data from nasas suominpp satellite. Observations on night time lights serve as a unique proxy of human activity, and numerous studies have shown the relationship between night time lights data and economic activity doll et al. Jan 21, 2014 since the 1970s nighttime satellite images of the earth from space have provided a striking illustration of the extent of artificial light. This extensively illustrated guide introduces users to the types of. Using remotely sensed nighttime light as a proxy for poverty.
Ciesin thematic guide nighttime light remote sensing 3 1. Firstly, night time light data is a available at a very coarse geospatial resolution only. Modeling the distribution of human population with nighttime satellite imagery and gridded population of the world pecora 15land satellite information ivisprs commission ifieos 2002 conference proceedings figure 1. Since the late 1990s, remotely sensed night time lights ntl satellite imagery has been shown to correlate with socioeconomic parameters including urbanization, economic activity, and population. The field lacks a physical model to relate nightlight imagery and light generation.
We construct several different measures of luminosity, vary. Analyzing spatial variability in nighttime lights using a. The latest release of nighttime imagery has been greatly improved through the use of the suomi national polarorbiting partnership npp satellite which was launched in october of 2011. More recent research demonstrates that multitemporal ntl data can serve as a reliable proxy for change over time in these variables whether they are. This article analyses dmspols nighttime imagery as an information source to detect human settlements and to estimate the urban population in the amazon region. Analogous to how visible imagery uses reflected sunlight, the dnb. Modeling the distribution of human population with nighttime. Modelling the distribution of human population with night time lights imagery and gridded population of the world pecora 15land satellite information ivisprs commission ifieos conference proceedings. But spending time gazing at the images presented in this book. Using national household survey data, principal component analysis was used to compute assetbased poverty indices from aggregated household asset variables at the administrative 1 level n 338 in 37. The corrected nighttime radiance, resulting in a superior retrieval of nighttime lights at short time scales and a reduction in background noise, enables. The observations on which the data is assembled are made by the operational linescan system ols flown on the defense meteorological satellite program dmsp satellites. In this case, auroras, fires, and other stray light have been removed to emphasize the city lights.
An excellent detailed description of the satellite instrumentation. What does high resolution satellite imagery reveal about economic welfare. The imagery we use is the defense meteorological satellite program s operational linescan system dmspols, which acquires night time images in the visible near infrared vnir. This satellite contains a lowlight sensor called the. Nasas night time satellite images show huge growth of. Background nightsat data and applications there are two major sources of nighttime satellite imagery. Remote sensing of nighttime lights offers a unique ability to monitor. This threshold is often easily exceeded in very bright urban cores and does not allow the night time light data to capture any growth in.
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