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Publications (60)
The history of satellite remote sensing of nighttime lights traces it is roots back the U.S. Air Force Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) which began flying polar orbiting satellites with cloud imaging sensors in the 1970’s. The meteorologists found that they could improve weather predictions with visible and thermal band imagery. The...
It is well established that nighttime radiance, measured from satellites, correlates with economic prosperity across the globe. In developing countries, areas with low levels of detected radiance generally indicate limited development – with unlit areas typically being disregarded. Here we combine satellite nighttime lights and the world settlement...
With the growing size and use of night light time series from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite Day/Night Band (DNB), it is important to understand the stability of the dataset. All satellites observe differences in pixel values during repeat observations. In the case of night light data, these changes can be due to both environmental e...
Light pollution is a worldwide problem that has a range of adverse effects on human health and natural ecosystems. Using data from the New World Atlas of Artificial Night Sky Brightness, VIIRS-recorded radiance and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data, we compared light pollution levels, and the light flux to the population size and GDP at the State a...
A methodology had been proposed for cross-matching visible infrared imaging radiometer suite (VIIRS) boat detections (VBD) with vessel monitoring system (VMS) tracks. The process involves predicting the probable location of VMS vessels at the time of each VIIRS data collection with an orbital model. Thirty-two months of Indonesian VMS data was segm...
The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) collects low light imaging data at night in five spectral bands. The best known of these is the day/night band (DNB) which uses light intensification for imaging of moonlit clouds in the visible and near-infrared (VNIR). The other four low light imaging bands are in the NIR and short-wave infrar...
With the growing size and use of night light time series from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite Day/Night Band (DNB), it is important to understand the stability of the dataset. All satellites observe differences in pixel values during repeat observations. In the case of night light data, these changes can be due to both environmental e...
With the growing size and use of night lights time series from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite Day/Night Band (DNB), it is important to understand the stability of the dataset. All satellites observe differences in pixel values during repeat observations. In the case of night lights data, these changes can be due to both environmental...
As the world's most traded commodity, oil production is typically well monitored and analyzed. It also has established links to geopolitics, international relations, and security. Despite this attention, the illicit production, refining, and trade of oil and derivative products occur all over the world and provide significant revenues outside of th...
Fishery closures are widely used to promote the sustainability of fish stocks. Fishery agencies typically have very little data relevant to planning closure enforcement actions and evaluating the effectiveness of closures, due in part to the vast expanse and remote nature of many closures. In some cases the effectiveness of closures can be evaluate...
In this paper, we compare 2015 satellite-derived natural gas (gas) flaring data with the greenhouse gas reduction targets presented by those countries in their nationally determined contributions (NDC) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Paris Agreement. Converting from flaring to utilization is an attractive op...
A central aim of the “lighting revolution” (the transition to solid-state lighting technology) is decreased energy consumption. This could be undermined by a rebound effect of increased use in response to lowered cost of light. We use the first-ever calibrated satellite radiometer designed for night lights to show that from 2012 to 2016, Earth’s ar...
The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Day/Night Band (DNB) collects global low-light imaging data that have significant improvements over comparable data collected for 40 years by the DMSP Operational Linescan System. One of the prominent features of DNB data is the detection of electric lighting present on the Earth’s surface. Most...
Artificial lights raise night sky luminance, creating the most visible effect of light pollution-artificial skyglow. Despite the increasing interest among scientists in fields such as ecology, astronomy, health care, and land-use planning, light pollution lacks a current quantification of its magnitude on a global scale. To overcome this, we presen...
A set of methods are presented for the global survey of natural gas flaring using data collected by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NASA/NOAA Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS). The accuracy of the flared gas volume estimates is rated at ±9.5%. VIIRS is particularly we...
Smoldering peat fires in Indonesia are responsible for large quantities of trace gas and particulate emissions. However, to date no satellite remote sensing technique has been demonstrated for the identification of smoldering peat fires. Fires have two distinct combustion phases: a high temperature flaming and low temperature smoldering phases. The...
The ability for satellite sensors to detect lit fishing boats has been known since
the 1970s. However, the use of the observations has been limited by the lack of an automatic
algorithm for reporting the location and brightness of offshore lighting features arising from
boats. An examination of lit fishing boat features in Visible Infrared Imaging...
The Defense Meteorological Satellite Program-Operational Linescan System (DMSP-OLS) stable lights products are made using operational OLS data collected at high gain settings, resulting in sensor saturation on brightly lit areas, such as city centers. This has been a paramount shortcoming of the DMSP-OLS stable lights time series. This study outlin...
Peatland fires typically have flaming and smoldering phases present simultaneously within pixel footprints typical for satellite remote sensing systems like Landsat and VIIRS. The flaming phase temperature is approximately twice that of the smoldering phase. This temperature differential makes it possible to sample the flaming and smoldering Planck...
The Suomi National Polar Partnership (SNPP) is a satellite operated jointly by the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The primary imaging sensor on SNPP is the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS). Among imaging meteorological satellite sens...
Dramatically improved nighttime lights capabilities are presented by the launch of the National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Day Night Band (DNB) sensor. Building on 18 years of experience compositing nighttime data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Operational Linescan Sy...
We have developed a satellite data derived "Night Light Development Index" (NLDI) as a sim-ple, objective, spatially explicit and globally available empirical measurement of human development derived solely from nighttime satellite imagery and population density. There is increasing recognition that the distri-bution of wealth and income amongst th...
When compared to DMSP-OLS data, the VIIRS instrument provides substantial spatial resolution and an expanded set of spectral bands for the detection of combustion sources and heavily lit fishing boats. This paper presents a comparison of lit fishing boat detections for the two sensors and a sample of nighttime fire detection from VIIRS data using n...
A technique has been developed to estimate the percent population having electric power access based on the presence of satellite detected nighttime lighting. A global survey was conducted for the year 2006 using nighttime lights collected by the U.S. Air Force Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) in combination with the U.S. Department...
The potential use of satellite observed nighttime lights for estimating carbon-dioxide (CO2) emissions has been demonstrated in several previous studies. However, the procedures for a moderate resolution (1 km2 grid cells) global map of fossil fuel CO2 emissions based on nighttime lights are still in the developmental phase. We report on the develo...
Since 1994, NGDC has had an active program focused on global mapping of nighttime lights using the data collected by the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program's Operational Linescan System (DMSP-OLS) sensors. The basic product is a global annual cloud-free composite, which averages the OLS visible band data for one satellite from the cloud-free...
We investigated the optimal spectral bands for the identification of lighting types and the estimation of four major indices used to measure the efficiency or character of lighting. To accomplish these objectives we collected high-resolution emission spectra (350 to 2,500 nm) for forty-three different lamps, encompassing nine of the major types of...
Collection of data on economic variables, especially sub-national income levels, is problematic, due to various shortcomings in the data collection process. Additionally, the informal economy is often excluded from official statistics. Nighttime lights satellite imagery and the LandScan population grid provide an alternative means for measuring eco...
We have produced annual estimates of national and global gas flaring and gas flaring efficiency from 1994 through 2008 using low light imaging data acquired by the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP). Gas flaring is a widely used practice for the disposal of associated gas in oil production and processing facilities where there is insuf...
A global poverty map has been produced at 30 arcsec resolution using a poverty index calculated by dividing population count (LandScan 2004) by the brightness of satellite observed lighting (DMSP nighttime lights). Inputs to the LandScan product include satellite-derived land cover and topography, plus human settlement outlines derived from high-re...
The Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Operational Linescan System (OLS) has a unique capability to collect low-light imaging data of the earth at night. The OLS and its predecessors have collected this style of data on a nightly global basis since 1972. The digital archive of OLS data extends back to 1992. Over the years several globa...
In this paper a global coral reef risk assessment is presented showing temporal trends related to human activity in close proximity to reef ecosystems. Based on the DMSP-OLS (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program -Operational Linescan System) archive spanning the years 1992-2003 a time series analysis is carried out, whereas inter-calibration of...
In case of emergency disaster managers worldwide require immediate information on affected areas and estimations of the number of affected people. Natural disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados, wind and ice storms often involve failures in the electrical power generation system and grid. Near real time identification of power blackout...
In this article, we present a satellite-based approach to gather information about the threat to coral reefs worldwide. Three chosen reef stressors – development, gas flaring and heavily lit fishing boat activity – are analysed using nighttime lights data derived from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) produced at the National Ocea...
We present the first global inventory of the spatial distribution and density ofconstructed impervious surface area (ISA). Examples of ISA include roads, parking lots,buildings, driveways, sidewalks and other manmade surfaces. While high spatialresolution is required to observe these features, the new product reports the estimateddensity of ISA on...
NOAA's National Geophysical Data Center has developed a time series of annual global nighttime lights products at approximately 1 km resolution extending from 1992 to 2003. These products are cloud-free composites which have been processed to remove ephemeral lights from events like fires and background noise. Because the OLS has no on-board calibr...
Standard methods for estimating poverty rates produce aggregated results for individual countries or administrative units. There are a wide number of potential applications for disaggregated grids of population numbers in poverty. We have investigated the possible use the brightness of satellite observed nighttime lights along with along with gridd...
A series of national and global estimates of gas flaring volumes have been produced spanning a twelve year time period (1995 through 2006) using low light imaging data acquired by the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP). A calibration for estimating gas flaring volumes using DMSP data was developed based on a pooled set of reported nati...
The Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Operational Linescan System (OLS) has a unique capability to collect low- light imaging data of the earth at night. The OLS and its predecessors have collected this style of data on a nightly global basis since 1972. The digital archive of OLS data extends back to 1992. Over the years several glob...
The Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Operational Linescan System (OLS) has a unique low-light imaging capability developed for the detection of clouds using moonlight. In addition to moonlit clouds, the OLS also detects lights from human settlements, fires, gas flares, heavily lit fishing boats, lightning and the aurora. By analysing...
A procedure has been developed to locate and estimate the area of heavy forest burning based on the frequency of DMSP-OLS (US Air Force Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Operational Linescan System) fire detection from time series of observations across the fire season. A calibration was developed for Roraima, Brazil, using Landsat Thematic...
We present a method to map the artificial sky brightness across large territories in astronomical photometric bands with a resolution of approximately 1 km. This is of use in quantifying the situation regarding night sky pollution, recognizing potential astronomical sites and allowing future monitoring of trends. The artificial sky brightness prese...
We present the map of the artificial sky brightness in Europe in V band with a resolution of approximately 1 km. The aim is to understand the state of night sky pollution in Europe, to quantify the present situation and to allow future monitoring of trends. The artificial sky brightness in each site at a given position on the sky is obtained by int...
We present a project to map the artificial sky brightness in Europe in the main astronomical photometrical bands with a resolution better than 3 km. The aim is to understand the state of night sky pollution in Europe, to quantify the present situation and to allow future monitoring of trends. The artificial sky brightness in each site at a given po...
Nocturnal lighting is a primary method for enabling human activity. Outdoor lighting is used extensively worldwide in residential, commercial, industrial, public facilities, and roadways. A radiance calibrated nighttime lights image of the United States has been assembled from Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Operational Linescan Sys...
An approach is presented for characterizing the urban environment surrounding 1221 US Historical Climatology Network (US HCN) stations using light frequency data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite ProgramOperational Linescan System (DMSP-OLS) sensor. Each grid cell of the DMSPOLS data was thresholded into urban, suburban and rural categories...
The area lit by anthropogenic visible-near infrared emissions (i.e., lights) has been estimated for 21 countries using night-time data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Operational Linescan System (OLS). The area lit is highly correlated to gross domestic product and electric power consumption. Significant outliers exist in t...
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has developed a tool known as the Information and Communication Technology Development Index (IDI) for measuring the development of countries as information societies. They found a close correlation between IDI and the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita of countries. In this paper on the basis of...
