Using radiant intensity to characterize the anisotropy of satellite-derived city light at night

Li, Xi; Shang, Xiaoyu; Zhang, Qingling; Li, Deren; Chen, Fengrui; Jia, Mengmeng; Wang, Yan

doi:10.1016/j.rse.2022.112920

Cited by 26 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…In further study, we should use data (e.g., AOD, LULC, and social media data) to reflect human and nature features for a comprehensive analysis. Finally, anisotropic characteristic [70,71] and seasonal changes (e.g., vegetation and snow cover) can also affect the NPP/VIIRS NTL intensity [7,72]. In order to better evaluate urban development, these factors need to be taken into account in future studies.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analyzing the Spatially Heterogeneous Relationships between Nighttime Light Intensity and Human Activities across Chongqing, China

Chen

et al. 2022

Remote Sensing

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Nighttime light (NTL) intensity is highly associated with the unique footprint of human activities, reflecting the development of socioeconomic and urbanization. Therefore, better understanding of the relationship between NTL intensity and human activities can help extend the applications of NTL remote sensing data. Different from the global effect of human activities on NTL intensity discussed in previous studies, we focused more attention to the local effect caused by the spatial heterogeneity of human activities with the support of the multiscale geographically weighted regression (MGWR) model in this study. In particular, the Suomi National Polar Orbiting Partnership/Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (NPP/VIIRS) NTL data within Chongqing, China were taken as example, and the point of interest (POI) data and road network data were adopted to characterize the intensity of human activity type. Our results show that there is significant spatial variation in the effect of human activities to the NTL intensity, since the accuracy of fitted MGWR (adj.R2: 0.86 and 0.87 in 2018 and 2020, respectively; AICc: 4844.63 and 4623.27 in 2018 and 2020, respectively) is better than that of both the traditional ordinary least squares (OLS) model and the geographically weighted regression (GWR) model. Moreover, we found that almost all human activity features show strong spatial heterogeneity and their contribution to NTL intensity varies widely across different regions. For instance, the contribution of road network density is more homogeneous, while residential areas have an obviously heterogeneous distribution which is associated with house vacancy. In addition, the contributions of the commercial event and business also have a significant spatial heterogeneity distribution, but show a distinct decrement when facing the COVID-19 pandemic. Our study successfully explores the relationship between NTL intensity and human activity features considering the spatial heterogeneity, which aims to provide further insights into the future applications of NTL data.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analyzing the Spatially Heterogeneous Relationships between Nighttime Light Intensity and Human Activities across Chongqing, China

Chen

et al. 2022

Remote Sensing

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“…This reduction is important as light emission in the range 80° < zenith angle < 90° is the dominant contributor to rural skyglow, e.g. [12]. In comparison, the relatively unobstructed emission at lower zenith angles contributes predominantly to the urban skyglow.…”

Section: Dublin Citymentioning

confidence: 99%

Real-World Urban Light Emission Functions and Quantitative Comparison With Spacecraft Measurements

Espey¹,

Yan²,

Patrascu³

2023

Preprint

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We provide quantitative results from GIS-based modelling of urban emission functions for a range of representative low- and mid-rise locations, ranging from individual streets to residential communities within cities as well as entire towns and city regions with the aim of whether lantern photometry or built environment has the dominant effect on light pollution. We demonstrate the scalability of our work by providing results for the largest urban area modelled to date, comprising the central 117 km2 area of Dublin City and containing nearly 42,000 public lights. Our results show a general similarity in the shape of the azimuthally-averaged emission function for all areas examined, with differences in total light output distribution depending primarily on the nature of the lighting and, to a smaller extent, on the obscuring environment including seasonal foliage effects. A comparison with global satellite observations shows that they are consistent with the deduced angular emission function for other low-rise areas worldwide. We further validate our approach by comparing results for a range of urban locations by the close agreement observed in a detailed comparison of with calibrated imagery from the International Space Station. To our knowledge, this is the first such detailed quantitative verification of light loss calculations.

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“…There is a growing body of evidence that there are view angle effects on the brightness of lighting observed from space (Li et al, 2022;Tan et al, 2022;Wang et al, 2022). The view angle effects arise from building and shielding geometries that have yet to be fully explored.…”

Section: Concepts For Future Nighttime Lights Satellite Sensorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fifty years of nightly global low-light imaging satellite observations

Elvidge

Baugh²,

Ghosh³

et al. 2022

Front. Remote Sens.

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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 visible band channels on early DMSP satellites worked well in the daytime—but were unable to see clouds at nights. Visible band low light imaging was added in the mid-1970’s using photomultiplier tubes to amplify the signal, enabling the detection of moonlit clouds. In 1992, NOAA established a digital archive for DMSP data at the National Geophysical Data Center in Boulder, Colorado. The Earth Observation Group (EOG) was formed in 1994 and dedicated it is efforts to making global nighttime light data products for uses by the science and policy communities. Many of the shortcomings of DMSP data were addressed with the NASA/NOAA Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) day/night band (DNB), which opened a new era in nighttime light studies. In total, EOG has produced 65 annual global nighttime light products and over 650 monthly products.

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Using radiant intensity to characterize the anisotropy of satellite-derived city light at night

Cited by 26 publications

References 42 publications

Analyzing the Spatially Heterogeneous Relationships between Nighttime Light Intensity and Human Activities across Chongqing, China

Analyzing the Spatially Heterogeneous Relationships between Nighttime Light Intensity and Human Activities across Chongqing, China

Real-World Urban Light Emission Functions and Quantitative Comparison With Spacecraft Measurements

Fifty years of nightly global low-light imaging satellite observations

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