Application of DMSP/OLS Nighttime Light Images:  A Meta-Analysis and a Systematic Literature Review

Huang, Qingxu; Yang, Xi; Gao, Bin; Yang, Yang; Zhao, Yuanyuan

doi:10.3390/rs6086844

Cited by 198 publications

(118 citation statements)

References 88 publications

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“…The files in this data set came from sensors with identical onboard design and continuous space platform, providing a unique and valuable resource for monitoring the long-term dynamics of urbanization [9]. More importantly, the DMSP/OLS nighttime light images have been utilized in several studies for quantitatively estimating and mapping socioeconomic activities related to urbanization processes from regional to global scales [23]. For example, Sutton et al [24] estimated the global human population using the statistical relationship between nighttime lighted area and urban population, while Doll et al [25] created regional disaggregated maps of the gross domestic product (GDP) based upon the relationships between nighttime radiance data and the GDP.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamics of Urbanization Levels in China from 1992 to 2012: Perspective from DMSP/OLS Nighttime Light Data

et al. 2015

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Abstract:The authenticity and reliability of urbanization levels measured by different indicators in China have not reached a consensus, which may impede our understanding of the process of urbanization and its impacts on the environment. The objective of this study was to describe a reliable method of estimating urbanization level based on the Operational Line-scan System (OLS) on the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) nighttime light data and to analyze the dynamics of urbanization levels in China from 1992 to 2012. We calculated the comprehensive urbanization level at the national, provincial, and county scales using a compounded night light index (CNLI) and compared the change rate of CNLI with those of the other two conventional urbanization level indicators, proportion of the nonagricultural population and proportion of built-up area. Our results showed that CNLI derived from the DMSP/OLS data set provided a relatively reliable and accurate measure of the comprehensive urbanization level in China. During the last two decades, China has experienced continued and rapid urbanization with large regional variations. The CNLI increased 3.12 times, from 1.72 × 10 . The annual increases of CNLI in eastern provinces were much faster than those in western provinces. In addition, we found that the rates of change in these three indicators were consistent for OPEN ACCESS Remote Sens. 2015, 7 1722 most provinces with the exception of the four municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing) and a few eastern coastal provinces (Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong). Because the imbalance among population growth, urban expansion and socioeconomic development may affect cities' sustainable development, we should pay more attention to these regions with large disparities between different indicators.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamics of Urbanization Levels in China from 1992 to 2012: Perspective from DMSP/OLS Nighttime Light Data

et al. 2015

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“…Comparing with the review from other review paper [17,38], most types in DMSP/OLS applications have been covered and fewer types in VIIRS/DNB applications are covered. Although the manual reviewing process lacks the structuralized knowledge information and the overall importance computation in the network, they offer more concrete potential or detailed applications in new areas.…”

Section: Discipline-level Interactionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Research using these methods have been conducted in many earth science related disciplines, including discipline level analyses of Geographic Information System (GIS) development [13], transport geography [14], and topical level analysis of Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) [15] and geo-ontology [16]. The journal Remote Sensing published an article that systematically reviewed applications that utilized the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program/Operational Linescan System (DMSP/OLS) datasets [17]. The analysis in this paper however, depended on qualitative interpretation and categorization, which inevitably reflects the subjective biases of the authors.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Scientometric Visualization Analysis for Night-Time Light Remote Sensing Research from 1991 to 2016

Guan

et al. 2017

Remote Sensing

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Abstract:In this paper, we conducted a scientometric analysis based on the Night-Time Light (NTL) remote sensing related literature datasets retrieved from Science Citation Index Expanded and Social Science Citation Index in Web of Science core collection database. Using the methods of bibliometric and Social Network Analysis (SNA), we drew several conclusions: (1) NTL related studies have become a research hotspot, especially after 2011 when the second generation of NTL satellites, the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S-NPP) Satellite with the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) sensor was on board. In the same period, the open-access policy of the long historical dataset of the first generation satellite Defense Meteorological Satellite Program's Operational Linescan System (DMSP/OLS) started. (2) Most related studies are conducted by authors from USA and China, and the USA takes the lead in the field. We identified the biggest research communities constructed by co-authorships and the related important authors and topics by SNA. (3) By the visualization and analysis of the topic evolution using the co-word and co-cited reference networks, we can clearly see that: the research topics change from hardware oriented studies to more real-world applications; and from the first generation of the satellite DMSP/OLS to the second generation of satellite S-NPP. Although the Day Night Band (DNB) of the S-NPP exhibits higher spatial and radiometric resolution and better calibration conditions than the first generation DMSP/OLS, the longer historical datasets in DMSP/OLS are still important in long-term and large-scale human activity analysis. (4) In line with the intuitive knowledge, the NTL remote sensing related studies display stronger connections (such as interpretive frame, context, and academic purpose) to the social sciences than the general remote sensing discipline. The citation trajectories are visualized based on the dual-maps, thus the research preferences for combining the environmental, ecological, economic, and political science disciplines are clearly exhibited. Overall, the picture of the NTL remote sensing research is presented from the scientist-level, topic-level, and discipline-level interactions. Based on these analyses, we also discuss the possible trends in the future work, such as combining NTL studies with social science research and social media data.

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“…This data was previously provided by the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) [8] and is currently being derived from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite (Suomi-NPP) [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. Although there are some limitations in the spatial resolution, diffusion and saturation effects in comparison with VIIRS data, the long-term archive of DMSP nighttime light data is still an irreplaceable data source due to globally consistent observations for the development of human settlements and socioeconomic dynamics [17][18][19][20][21].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Human Settlement Composite Index (HSCI) Derived from Nighttime Luminosity Associated with Imperviousness and Vegetation Indexes

Huang

et al. 2018

Remote Sensing

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Satellite-derived nighttime light data have been increasingly used for studying urbanization and socioeconomic dynamics, because there are notable quantitative relationships between anthropogenic nocturnal radiance and the degree of human activity over time and space at different scales. When considering the visible impacts of saturation and over-glow effects from original nighttime light images, several composite indexes, which mainly include the introduction of vegetation index, have been studied to improve the application of nighttime light data for investigating the spatial patterns in human settlements. To overcome the shortcomings of previous composite indexes, especially in areas of highly intensified human activity, such as urban, non-man-made surfaces, and low density human activity, such as in rural residential sites, we propose a new human settlement composite index (HSCI). The establishment of this proposed HSCI is based on a combination of three different remote sensing datasets: nighttime light brightness (derived from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program, DMSP), the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI, derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, MODIS), and the percent impervious surface area (PISA, derived from the GlobeLand30 land cover and land use dataset produced from Landsat data). We defined the calculation of HSCI as the arithmetic mean of the normalized difference urban index and normalized difference imperviousness index with respect to both the magnitude of socioeconomic activity and the distribution of artificial surface across human settlement, respectively. Analysis results clearly demonstrate the utility of HSCI in delineating spatial patterns for different kinds of human settlement, particularly for identifying non-man-made surfaces in urbanized areas, various densities of human activities in peripheral areas and small human settlements in rural and remote areas. Our method and findings provide an effective way to investigate human settlements with a nighttime brightness-based composite index, as well as valuable insights into further studies of the composite index related to nocturnal luminosity data.

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Application of DMSP/OLS Nighttime Light Images: A Meta-Analysis and a Systematic Literature Review

Cited by 198 publications

References 88 publications

Dynamics of Urbanization Levels in China from 1992 to 2012: Perspective from DMSP/OLS Nighttime Light Data

Dynamics of Urbanization Levels in China from 1992 to 2012: Perspective from DMSP/OLS Nighttime Light Data

A Scientometric Visualization Analysis for Night-Time Light Remote Sensing Research from 1991 to 2016

A Human Settlement Composite Index (HSCI) Derived from Nighttime Luminosity Associated with Imperviousness and Vegetation Indexes

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