Global Lunar-Adjusted Nighttime Lights Yearly Satellite Grid

Global satellite data provides yearly composites of lunar BRDF-adjusted nighttime lights from the VIIRS/NPP sensor. The dataset contains 28 geospatial layers, including radiance composites, observation counts, quality flags, and standard deviations for different viewing angles and surface conditions. Produced by NASA's Black Marble suite, this record collection starts from January 1, 2012.

Use Cases

• Tracking urban growth and electrification using the NTL composite radiance layer.
• Assessing data reliability for a specific region using the quality flag and observation count layers.
• Analyzing seasonal or snow-cover effects on light emissions using the snow-covered and snow-free status layers.
• Comparing near-nadir versus off-nadir viewing angles for light source characterization using the multi-angle standard deviation layers.
• Creating land-water masks for regional studies using the included coordinate and mask information.

Strengths

• Contains 28 distinct data layers for detailed analysis of nighttime light signals.
• Data is corrected for atmospheric and lunar BRDF effects to remove extraneous artifacts.
• Provides a long-term record starting from January 2012, enabling time-series studies.
• Includes quality assurance information and standard deviations for multiple viewing angle categories.

Limitations

• Specific row count, file size, and total observation numbers are not provided by any source.
• Sources conflict on license details, with some specifying 'other-license-specified' and others listing 'None'.

Provenance

Source

NASA LAADS (Level-1 and Atmosphere Archive & Distribution System)

Collection Method

Satellite data from the VIIRS/NPP sensor, processed into Level 3 global grids with atmospheric and lunar BRDF correction.

Time Range

2012 to present

Freshness

2026-03-12 20:13:49.611669

Geography

Global