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 well suited for detecting and measuring the radiant emissions from gas flares through the collection of shortwave and near-infrared data at night, recording the peak radiant emissions from flares. In 2012, a total of 7467 individual flare sites were identified. The total flared gas volume is estimated at 143 (±13.6) billion cubic meters (BCM), corresponding to 3.5% of global production. While the USA has the largest number of flares, Russia leads in terms of flared gas volume. Ninety percent of the flared gas volume was found in upstream production areas, 8% at refineries and 2% at liquified natural gas (LNG) terminals. The results confirm that the bulk of natural gas flaring occurs in upstream production areas. VIIRS data can provide site-specific tracking of natural gas flaring for use in evaluating efforts to reduce and eliminate routine flaring.
VIIRS night-time lights Elvidge, Christopher D; Baugh, Kimberly; Zhizhin, Mikhail ...
International journal of remote sensing,
11/2017, Letnik:
38, Številka:
21
Journal Article
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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 of these lights are from human settlements. VIIRS collects source data that could be used to generate monthly and annual science grade global radiance maps of human settlements with electric lighting. There are a substantial number of steps involved in producing a product that has been cleaned to exclude background noise, solar and lunar contamination, data degraded by cloud cover, and features unrelated to electric lighting (e.g. fires, flares, volcanoes). This article describes the algorithms developed for the production of high-quality global VIIRS night-time lights. There is a broad base of science users for VIIRS night-time lights products, ranging from land-use scientists, urban geographers, ecologists, carbon modellers, astronomers, demographers, economists, and social scientists.
A satellite survey of the cumulative radiant emissions from electric lighting across China reveals a large radiance decline in lighting from December 2019 to February 2020—the peak of the lockdown ...established to suppress the spread of COVID-19 infections. To illustrate the changes, an analysis was also conducted on a reference set from a year prior to the pandemic. In the reference period, the majority (62%) of China’s population lived in administrative units that became brighter in March 2019 relative to December 2018. The situation reversed in February 2020, when 82% of the population lived in administrative units where lighting dimmed as a result of the pandemic. The dimming has also been demonstrated with difference images for the reference and pandemic image pairs, scattergrams, and a nightly temporal profile. The results indicate that it should be feasible to monitor declines and recovery in economic activity levels using nighttime lighting as a proxy.
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 Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) day/night band (DNB) data indicates that the features are essentially spikes. We have developed a set of algorithms for automatic detection of spikes and characterization of the sharpness of spike features. A spike detection algorithm generates a list of candidate boat detections. A second algorithm measures the height of the spikes for the discard of ionospheric energetic particle detections and to rate boat detections as either strong or weak. A sharpness index is used to label boat detections that appear blurry due to the scattering of light by clouds. The candidate spikes are then filtered to remove features on land and gas flares. A validation study conducted using analyst selected boat detections found the automatic algorithm detected 99.3% of the reference pixel set. VIIRS boat detection data can provide fishery agencies with up-to-date information of fishing boat activity and changes in this activity in response to new regulations and enforcement regimes. The data can provide indications of illegal fishing activity in restricted areas and incursions across Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) boundaries. VIIRS boat detections occur widely offshore from East and Southeast Asia, South America and several other regions.
The Nightfire algorithm detects and characterizes sub-pixel hot sources using multispectral data collected globally, each night, by the Suomi National Polar Partnership (NPP) Visible Infrared Imaging ...Radiometer Suite (VIIRS). The spectral bands utilized span visible, near-infrared (NIR), short-wave infrared (SWIR), and mid-wave infrared (MWIR). The primary detection band is in the SWIR, centered at 1.6 μm. Without solar input, the SWIR spectral band records sensor noise, punctuated by high radiant emissions associated with gas flares, biomass burning, volcanoes, and industrial sites such as steel mills. Planck curve fitting of the hot source radiances yields temperature (K) and emission scaling factor (ESF). Additional calculations are done to estimate source size (m2), radiant heat intensity (W/m2), and radiant heat (MW). Use of the sensor noise limited M7, M8, and M10 spectral bands at night reduce scene background effects, which are widely reported for fire algorithms based on MWIR and long-wave infrared. High atmospheric transmissivity in the M10 spectral band reduces atmospheric effects on temperature and radiant heat retrievals. Nightfire retrieved temperature estimates for sub-pixel hot sources ranging from 600 to 6,000 K. An intercomparison study of biomass burning in Sumatra from June 2013 found Nightfire radiant heat (MW) to be highly correlated to Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) Fire Radiative Power (MW).
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 present the world atlas of artificial sky luminance, computed with our light pollution propagation software using new high-resolution satellite data and new precision sky brightness measurements. This atlas shows that more than 80% of the world and more than 99% of the U.S. and European populations live under light-polluted skies. The Milky Way is hidden from more than one-third of humanity, including 60% of Europeans and nearly 80% of North Americans. Moreover, 23% of the world's land surfaces between 75°N and 60°S, 88% of Europe, and almost half of the United States experience light-polluted nights.
Light pollution is one of the most rapidly increasing types of environmental degradation. Its levels have been growing exponentially over the natural nocturnal lighting levels provided by starlight ...and moonlight. To limit this pollution several effective practices have been defined: the use of shielding on lighting fixture to prevent direct upward light, particularly at low angles above the horizon; no over lighting, i.e. avoid using higher lighting levels than strictly needed for the task, constraining illumination to the area where it is needed and the time it will be used. Nevertheless, even after the best control of the light distribution is reached and when the proper quantity of light is used, some upward light emission remains, due to reflections from the lit surfaces and atmospheric scatter. The environmental impact of this "residual light pollution", cannot be neglected and should be limited too. Here we propose a new way to limit the effects of this residual light pollution on wildlife, human health and stellar visibility. We performed analysis of the spectra of common types of lamps for external use, including the new LEDs. We evaluated their emissions relative to the spectral response functions of human eye photoreceptors, in the photopic, scotopic and the ‘meltopic’ melatonin suppressing bands. We found that the amount of pollution is strongly dependent on the spectral characteristics of the lamps, with the more environmentally friendly lamps being low pressure sodium, followed by high pressure sodium. Most polluting are the lamps with a strong blue emission, like Metal Halide and white LEDs. Migration from the now widely used sodium lamps to white lamps (MH and LEDs) would produce an increase of pollution in the scotopic and melatonin suppression bands of more than five times the present levels, supposing the same photopic installed flux. This increase will exacerbate known and possible unknown effects of light pollution on human health, environment and on visual perception of the Universe by humans. We present quantitative criteria to evaluate the lamps based on their spectral emissions and we suggest regulatory limits for future lighting.
► This work presents a new additional way to limit light pollution effects. ► We summarize light pollution consequences on health, environment and astronomy. ► We summarize the technical prescription to limit light pollution. ► We found that a limit to the short wavelength blue light should be implemented. ► New white LEDs pollute the blue part of the spectrum and should be regulated.
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 artificially lit outdoor area grew by 2.2% per year, with a total radiance growth of 1.8% per year. Continuously lit areas brightened at a rate of 2.2% per year. Large differences in national growth rates were observed, with lighting remaining stable or decreasing in only a few countries. These data are not consistent with global scale energy reductions but rather indicate increased light pollution, with corresponding negative consequences for flora, fauna, and human well-being.
Remote sensing of night light emissions in the visible band offers a unique opportunity to directly observe human activity from space. This has allowed a host of applications including mapping urban ...areas, estimating population and GDP, monitoring disasters and conflicts. More recently, remotely sensed night lights data have found use in understanding the environmental impacts of light emissions (light pollution), including their impacts on human health. In this review, we outline the historical development of night-time optical sensors up to the current state of the art sensors, highlight various applications of night light data, discuss the special challenges associated with remote sensing of night lights with a focus on the limitations of current sensors, and provide an outlook for the future of remote sensing of night lights. While the paper mainly focuses on space borne remote sensing, ground based sensing of night-time brightness for studies on astronomical and ecological light pollution, as well as for calibration and validation of space borne data, are also discussed. Although the development of night light sensors lags behind day-time sensors, we demonstrate that the field is in a stage of rapid development. The worldwide transition to LED lights poses a particular challenge for remote sensing of night lights, and strongly highlights the need for a new generation of space borne night lights instruments. This work shows that future sensors are needed to monitor temporal changes during the night (for example from a geostationary platform or constellation of satellites), and to better understand the angular patterns of light emission (roughly analogous to the BRDF in daylight sensing). Perhaps most importantly, we make the case that higher spatial resolution and multispectral sensors covering the range from blue to NIR are needed to more effectively identify lighting technologies, map urban functions, and monitor energy use.
•Remote sensing of night lights allows observation of human activity from space.•We provide a historical overview of the development of such night-time sensors.•We highlight various applications of remote sensing of night lights.•We discuss the special challenges associated with remote sensing of night lights.•We provide an outlook for the future of remote sensing of night lights.
Urbanization, a major driver of global change, profoundly impacts our physical and social world, for example, altering not just water and carbon cycling, biodiversity, and climate, but also ...demography, public health, and economy. Understanding these consequences for better scientific insights and effective decision-making unarguably requires accurate information on urban extent and its spatial distributions. We developed a method to map the urban extent from the defense meteorological satellite program operational linescan system nighttime stable-light data at the global level and created a new global 1 km urban extent map for the year 2000. Our map shows that globally, urban is about 0.5% of total land area but ranges widely at the regional level, from 0.1% in Oceania to 2.3% in Europe. At the country level, urbanized land varies from about 0.01 to 10%, but is lower than 1% for most (70%) countries. Urbanization follows land mass distribution, as anticipated, with the highest concentration between 30° N and 45° N latitude and the largest longitudinal peak around 80° W. Based on a sensitivity analysis and comparison with other global urban area products, we found that our global product of urban areas provides a reliable estimate of global urban areas and offers the potential for producing a time-series of urban area maps for temporal dynamics analyses.
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