Global Monthly Nighttime Lights with Lunar BRDF Correction
Updated 2mo ago
6filesBIN
Available on 2 platforms
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Description
Global monthly composites of nighttime lights from the Suomi NPP VIIRS satellite, processed to remove atmospheric and lunar reflectance artifacts. The dataset contains 28 layers per grid cell, including radiance composites, observation counts, quality flags, and standard deviations. It is produced by NASA's Land Atmosphere Archive and Distribution System (LAADS) and provides a continuous record starting from January 2012.
Use Cases
Tracking urban expansion and economic activity over time using the monthly NTL composite radiance layers.
Assessing data quality and reliability for specific regions using the provided quality flag layers and observation count data.
Analyzing seasonal variations in nighttime lighting, accounting for snow cover using the snow-covered and snow-free status layers.
Conducting cross-regional comparisons of light pollution or energy use with standardized, atmospherically-corrected radiance values.
Strengths
Provides a long-term, consistent time series with data from January 2012 onward.
Includes 28 detailed data layers per location, such as radiance, quality flags, and observation counts for near-nadir, off-nadir, and all-angle views.
Applies advanced correction for atmospheric and lunar Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF) effects to reduce artifacts.
Limitations
Specific row count, file size, and complete column names are not provided by any source.
Sources conflict on license information, with one specifying 'other-license-specified' and another listing 'None'.
Provenance
Source
NASA Land Atmosphere Archive and Distribution System (LAADS)
Collection Method
Satellite remote sensing from the Suomi NPP spacecraft's Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), processed into Level 3 monthly global composites.
Time Range
2012-01-01 to present
Freshness
2026-03-12 20:13:39.982425
Geography
Global coverage on a 15 arc-second (approximately 500m) linear latitude-longitude grid.
License details are unclear due to conflicting metadata; users should verify terms directly with NASA. Data is provided in specialized formats including BIN and ISO.