Application of DMSP/OLS Nighttime Light Images: A Meta-Analysis and a Systematic Literature Review <s> Introduction <s> Abstract Urban population trends in China and energy utilization patterns in the United States have been assessed from LANDSAT and Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) images. Regression models developed from population ( P ) data and urban area ( A ) measurements on LANDSAT images are of the form P = α A b and provide insights into the success of Chinese urban planning policies for cities with populations of 500,000 to 2,000,000 people. Studies of the relationships between population, urban area, and electric-energy utilization patterns have been conducted from DMSP images of the United States. Microdensitometer profiles of illuminated cities recorded on nighttime (visual band) images are used in combination with the map boundaries of the built-up areas to create unique three-dimensional representations of the urban centers. The volumes of these three-dimensional figures may be computed and plotted with respect to population and/or energy utilization data to model regional patterns of use. Improvements in the quality of sensor data should increase the potential for monitoring urban energy demands and populations. <s> BIB001 </s> Application of DMSP/OLS Nighttime Light Images: A Meta-Analysis and a Systematic Literature Review <s> Introduction <s> Abstract An image of the entire Earth at night is assembled for the first time. It consists of a mosaic of photographs, all taken at local midnight in the 400–1100 nm band, made by the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program over the period 1974–84. Photographs were selected for freedom from clouds, lack of moonlight, high sensitivity and suitability to illustrate various temporal phenomena. The image primarily reveals activities of humankind such as urban street lighting, rangeland burning, slash-and-burn agriculture, natural gas burn-offs in oil fields, and squidding. <s> BIB002 </s> Application of DMSP/OLS Nighttime Light Images: A Meta-Analysis and a Systematic Literature Review <s> Introduction <s> Time series data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Operational Linescan System (OLS) have been used to derive georeferenced inventories of human settlements for Europe, North and South America, and Asia. The visible band of the OLS is intensified at night, permitting detection of nocturnal visible-near infrared emissions from cities, towns, and villages. The time series analysis makes it possible to eliminate ephemeral VNIR emission sources such as fire and to normalize for differences in the number of cloud-free observations. An examination of the area lit (km2) for 52 countries indicates the OLS derived products may be used to perform the spatial apportionment of population and energy related greenhouse gas emissions. <s> BIB003 </s> Application of DMSP/OLS Nighttime Light Images: A Meta-Analysis and a Systematic Literature Review <s> Introduction <s> The striking apparent correlation between nighttime satellite imagery and human population density was explored for the continental United States. The nighttime stable-lights imagery was derived from the visible near-ZR band of 231 orbits of the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Operational Linescan System (DMSP-OLS). The population density data were generated from a gridded vector dataset of the 1992 United States census block group polygons. Both datasets are at a one-square-kilometre resolution. The two images were co-registered and correlation between them was measured at a range of spatial scales, including aggregation to state and county levels. DMSP imagery showed strong correlations at aggregate scales, and analysis of the saturated areas of the images showed strong correlations between the areas of saturated clusters and the populations those areas cover. The non-zero pixels of the DMSP imagery correspond to only 10 percent of the land cover yet account for over 80 percent of the continental United States population. Spatial analysis of the clusters of the saturated pixels predicts population with an R2 of 0.63. Consequently, the DMSP imagery may prove to be useful to inform a "smart interpolation" program to improve maps and datasets of human population distributions in areas of the world where good census data may not be available or do not exist. <s> BIB004 </s> Application of DMSP/OLS Nighttime Light Images: A Meta-Analysis and a Systematic Literature Review <s> Introduction <s> Abstract Night-time satellite imagery acquired between October 1994 and March 1995 is here exploited to derive economic and energy-related global maps. By considering the lit area of a city, and combining this with ancillary statistical information, an analysis was performed designed to investigate the potential of night-time imagery for quantitative estimation of global socioeconomic parameters. An attempt to estimate global urban population using correlations of lit area and urban populations to derive country-level relationships accounted for over 90% of the quoted total. Furthermore, the total lit area of a country has a statistically significant high correlation value with other parameters, specifically Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and total carbon dioxide (CO2) emission. The new technique is limited by the spatial resolution of the sensor and the poorer correlation using night-time lights for centrally-planned economies. These findings offer great potential for synoptic global mapping of such parame... <s> BIB005 </s> Application of DMSP/OLS Nighttime Light Images: A Meta-Analysis and a Systematic Literature Review <s> Introduction <s> ABSTRA C T We present a method to map the artificial sky brightness across large territories in astronomical photometric bands with a resolution of approximately 1 km. This is of use in quantifying the situation regarding night sky pollution, recognizing potential astronomical sites and allowing future monitoring of trends. The artificial sky brightness present in the chosen direction at a given position on the surface of the Earth is obtained by the integration of the contributions produced by every surface area in the surroundings. Each contribution is computed via detailed models for the propagation in the atmosphere of the upward light flux emitted by the area. The light flux is measured with top-of-atmosphere radiometric observations made by the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Operational Linescan System. We have applied the described method to Europe, obtaining maps of artificial sky brightness in the V and B bands. <s> BIB006 </s> Application of DMSP/OLS Nighttime Light Images: A Meta-Analysis and a Systematic Literature Review <s> Introduction <s> Fire products derived from NOAA-AVHRR channel 3 images and DMSP-OLS are compared to determine the most appropriate AVHRR channel 3 thresholds and methods for operational monitoring of fire in Kalimantan, Indonesia. The results indicate that about 77% of AVHRR fire cells derived from a temperature threshold of 321 deg K applied to channel 3 daytime images corresponded with DMSP-OLS fire cells at monthly or longer time scales. However, lower temperature thresholds produced slightly greater correspondence between the two sensors on the same date. By contrast, a contextual algorithm produced a lower correspondence (approximately 50%) between fire products from the two sensors. Although the number and extent of DMSP-OLS fire cells was much greater than fire-cells derived from AVHRR channel 3, the spatial distribution of the two products was broadly similar in the study area. <s> BIB007 </s> Application of DMSP/OLS Nighttime Light Images: A Meta-Analysis and a Systematic Literature Review <s> Introduction <s> There has been increased public concern in the USA over the long-term impact of urbanization on the available land used to produce food, feed, and fiber. Concern that urban use of highly productive soils may threaten our food security and sustainability has been debated for nearly three decades. This study was primarily initiated to compare different soil productivity classes in terms of areas and proportion of land converted to urban uses in the USA. The methodology consisted of analyzing data resulting from a geographic information system (GIS) overlay of urban land use maps derived from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program's Operational Linescan System (DMSP/OLS) nighttime imagery and layers of potential soil productivity. Soil productivity distributions were obtained using the Soil Rating for Plant Growth (SRPG) model based primarily on soil and landscape parameters contained in the State Soil Geographic (STAT-SGO) database. Currently, the urban land use covers 3% of the conterminous USA and is primarily on areas that were originally of low and moderate soil productivity. Only 6% of the total land under urbanization had consisted of highly productive soils. However, land with highly productive soils, roughly 3% of the total U.S. area, has a higher level of urbanization (5%) than that of any other soil productivity category. States differ in the areas and proportion of land converted to urban uses in each soil productivity class. These results are a first step in determining the current status of soil resources in relation to urbanization and should be interpreted according to the scale and resolution of data sources and assumptions made in the soil productivity modeling. <s> BIB008 </s> Application of DMSP/OLS Nighttime Light Images: A Meta-Analysis and a Systematic Literature Review <s> Introduction <s> We estimated global marketed and non-marketed economic value from two classified satellite images with global coverage at 1 km2 resolution. GDP (a measure of marketed economic output) is correlated with the amount of light energy (LE) emitted by that nation as measured by nighttime satellite images. LE emitted is more spatially explicit than whole country GDP, may (for some nations or regions) be a more accurate indicator of economic activity than GDP itself, can be directly observed, and can be easily updated on an annual basis. As far as we know, this is the first global map of estimated economic activity produced at this high spatial resolution (1 km2). Ecosystem services product (ESP) is an important type of non-marketed value. ESP at 1 km2 resolution was estimated using the IGBP land-cover dataset and unit ecosystem service values estimated by Costanza et al. [Valuing Ecosystem Services with Efficiency, Fairness and Sustainability as Goals. Nature's Services, Island Press, Washington DC, pp. 49–70]. The sum of these two (GDP+ESP)=SEP is a measure of the subtotal ecological–economic product (marketed plus a significant portion of the non-marketed). The ratio: (ESP/SEP)×100=%ESP is a measure of proportion of the SEP from ecosystem services. Both SEP and %ESP were calculated and mapped for each 1 km2 pixel on the earth's surface, and aggregated by country. Results show the detailed spatial patterns of GDP, ESP, and SEP (also available at: http://www.du.edu/∼psutton/esiindexisee/EcolEconESI.htm). Globally, while GDP is concentrated in the northern industrialized countries, ESP is concentrated in tropical regions and in wetlands and other coastal systems. %ESP ranges from 1% for Belgium and Luxembourg to 3% for the Netherlands, 18% for India, 22% for the United States, 49% for Costa Rica, 57% for Chile, 73% for Brazil, and 92% for Russia. While GDP per capita has the usual northern industrialized countries at the top of the list, SEP per capita shows a quite different picture, with a mixture of countries with either high GDP/capita, high ESP/capita, or a combination near the top of the list. Finally, we compare our results with two other indices: (1) The 2001 Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI) derived as an initiative of the Global Leaders of Tomorrow Environment Task Force, World Economic Forum, and (2) Ecological Footprints of Nations: How much Nature do they use? How much Nature do they have? developed by Mathis Wackernagel and others. While both of these indices purport to measure sustainability, the ESI is actually mainly a measure of economic activity (and is correlated with GDP), while the Eco-Footprint index is a measure of environmental impact. The related eco-deficit (national ecological capacity minus national footprint) correlates well with %ESP. <s> BIB009 </s> Application of DMSP/OLS Nighttime Light Images: A Meta-Analysis and a Systematic Literature Review <s> Introduction <s> The hypothesis that the suppression of melatonin (MLT) by exposure to light at night (LAN) may be one reason for the higher rates of breast and colorectal cancers in the developed world deserves more attention. The literature supports raising this subject for awareness as a growing public health issue. Evidence now exists that indirectly links exposures to LAN to human breast and colorectal cancers in shift workers. The hypothesis begs an even larger question: has medical science overlooked the suppression of MLT by LAN as a contributor to the overall incidence of cancer? The indirect linkage of breast cancer to LAN is further supported by laboratory rat experiments by David E. Blask and colleagues. Experiments involved the implanting of human MCF-7 breast cancer cell xenografts into the groins of rats and measurements were made of cancer cell growth rates, the uptake of linoleic acid (LA), and MLT levels. One group of implanted rats were placed in light-dark (12L:12D) and a second group in light-light (12L:12L) environments. Constant light suppressed MLT, increased cancer cell growth rates, and increased LA uptake into cancer cells. The opposite was seen in the light-dark group. The proposed mechanism is the suppression of nocturnal MLT by exposure to LAN and subsequent lack of protection by MLT on cancer cell receptor sites which allows the uptake of LA which in turn enhances the growth of cancer cells. MLT is a protective, oncostatic hormone and strong antioxidant having evolved in all plants and animals over the millennia. In vertebrates, MLT is normally produced by the pineal gland during the early morning hours of darkness, even in nocturnal animals, and is suppressed by exposure to LAN. Daily entrainment of the human circadian clock is important for good human health. These studies suggest that the proper use and color of indoor and outdoor lighting is important to the health of both humans and ecosystems. Lighting fixtures should be designed to minimize interference with normal circadian rhythms in plants and animals. New discoveries on blue-light-sensitive retinal ganglion cell light receptors that control the circadian clock and how those receptors relate to today's modern high intensity discharge (HID) lamps are discussed. There is a brief discussion of circadian rhythms and light pollution. With the precautionary principle in mind, practical suggestions are offered for better indoor and outdoor lighting practices designed to safeguard human health. <s> BIB010 </s> Application of DMSP/OLS Nighttime Light Images: A Meta-Analysis and a Systematic Literature Review <s> Introduction <s> The disaster information system, the Early Damaged Area Estimation System (EDES), was developed to estimate damaged areas of natural disaster using the night-time imagery of the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Operational Linescan System (DMSP-OLS). The system employs two estimation methods to detect the city lights loss or reduction as possible impacted areas; one is the bi-temporal images (BTI) method and the other is the time-series images (TSI) method. Both methods are based on significance tests assuming that brightness of city lights fluctuates as normal random variables, and the BTI method is simplified by introducing the assumption that the standard deviation of city lights fluctuation is constant. The validity of the estimation method is discussed based on the result of the application to the 2001 Western India earthquake disaster. The estimation results identify the damaged areas distant from the epicentre fairly well, especially when using the TSI method. The system is designed to esti... <s> BIB011 </s> Application of DMSP/OLS Nighttime Light Images: A Meta-Analysis and a Systematic Literature Review <s> Introduction <s> In this article, we present a satellite-based approach to gather information about the threat to coral reefs worldwide. Three chosen reef stressors – development, gas flaring and heavily lit fishing boat activity – are analysed using nighttime lights data derived from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) produced at the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, National Geophysical Data Center (NOAA/NGDC). Nighttime lights represent a direct threat to coral reef ecosystems and are an excellent proxy measure for associated human-caused stressors. A lights proximity index (LPI) is calculated, measuring the distance of coral reef sites to each of the stressors and incorporating the stressor's intensity. Colourized maps visualize the results on a global scale. Area rankings clarify the effects of artificial night lighting on coral reefs on a regional scale. The results should be very useful for reef managers and for state administrations to implement coral reef conservation projects and fo... <s> BIB012 </s> Application of DMSP/OLS Nighttime Light Images: A Meta-Analysis and a Systematic Literature Review <s> Introduction <s> Baghdad Nights: Evaluating the US Military ‘Surge’ Using Nighttime Light Signatures John Agnew Thomas W. Gillespie Jorge Gonzalez Brian Min CCPR-064-08 December 2008 Latest Revised: December 2008 California Center for Population Research On-Line Working Paper Series <s> BIB013 </s> Application of DMSP/OLS Nighttime Light Images: A Meta-Analysis and a Systematic Literature Review <s> Introduction <s> The Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership NPP Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite VIIRS was launched on 28 October 2011, nearly 20 years after the conceptual definition began at the Hughes Aircraft Company's Santa Barbara Research Center. Constrained off-nadir pixel growth, producing constant or near-constant VIIRS spatial resolution over the entire scan swath, is a patented design feature that dramatically improves imaging radiometry compared to VIIRS predecessors. VIIRS ground-projected east–west across the orbit track and north–south along the orbit track pixel dimensions are constrained to within a factor of two from nadir to ±1500 km off-nadir edge of scan in all 22 VIIRS spectral bands. The capability is a valuable improvement to previous systems' six-fold across-track pixel growth over narrower swaths, while improving signal-to-noise ratio SNR without larger optics. The technique allows the VIIRS day/night band DNB to offer nearly 9-to over 50-fold finer and truly constant area spatial resolution with enhanced sensitivity and dynamic range compared with the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program DMSP Operational Linescan System OLS. This article reviews constant resolution from concept to VIIRS implementation and compares several VIIRS applications to similar applications of systems VIIRS replaces to demonstrate advantages of the new capability. <s> BIB014 </s> Application of DMSP/OLS Nighttime Light Images: A Meta-Analysis and a Systematic Literature Review <s> Introduction <s> Previous studies have demonstrated urban built-up areas can be derived from nighttime light satellite (DMSP-OLS) images at the national or continent scale. This paper presents a novel object-based method for detecting and characterizing urban spatial clusters from nighttime light satellite images automatically. First, urban built-up areas, derived from the regionally adaptive thresholding of DMSP-OLS nighttime light data, are represented as discrete urban objects. These urban objects are treated as basic spatial units and quantified in terms of geometric and shape attributes and their spatial relationships. Next, a spatial cluster analysis is applied to these basic urban objects to form a higher level of spatial units – urban spatial clusters. The Minimum Spanning Tree (MST) is used to represent spatial proximity relationships among urban objects. An algorithm based on competing propagation of objects is proposed to construct the MST of urban objects. Unlike previous studies, the distance between urban objects (i.e., the boundaries of urban built-up areas) is adopted to quantify the edge weight in MST. A Gestalt Theory-based method is employed to partition the MST of urban objects into urban spatial clusters. The derived urban spatial clusters are geographically delineated through mathematical morphology operation and construction of minimum convex hull. A series of landscape ecologic and statistical attributes are defined and calculated to characterize these clusters. Our method has been successfully applied to the analysis of urban landscape of China at the national level, and a series of urban clusters have been delimited and quantified. <s> BIB015 </s> Application of DMSP/OLS Nighttime Light Images: A Meta-Analysis and a Systematic Literature Review <s> Introduction <s> Obtaining timely and accurate data on the spatiotemporal dynamics of electric power consumption (EPC) is crucial for the effective utilization of electric power in China. The Defense Meteorological Satellite Program's Operational Linescan System (DMSP/OLS) nighttime stable light (NSL) data have good potential for estimating EPC effectively at large scales. However, saturated lighted pixels contained within the NSL data limit the accuracy of EPC estimation. We developed a new method to correct the saturated lighted pixels, using the SPOT VEGETATION (SPOT/VGT) 10-day synthesis product (S10) normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) data and then modeled the spatiotemporal dynamics of EPC in Mainland China from 2000 to 2008. The results demonstrated the reliability of our approach with an average R value of 0.93 (P<0.001) and an average relative error of −28.92%. EPC in Mainland China showed an average annual growth rate of 13.46% during the study period from 1198.23 billion kWh in 2000 to 3290.51 billion kWh in 2008. EPC in Mainland China also showed clear regional variation. Northern coastal China and eastern coastal China consumed 37.61% of the total EPC in Mainland China, with only 25.96% of the population and 6.11% of the area. <s> BIB016
The Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Operational Line Scanner (DMSP/OLS) was originally used to detect the global distribution of clouds and cloud top temperatures in the early 1970s. Croft  reported that nighttime photographs of the Visible and Near-Infrared (VNIR) band from this sensor had the potential to observe a series of faint VNIR emission sources, such as city lights, auroras, gas flares, and fires. However, the first 20 years of images were recorded on filmstrips, which greatly impeded the accessibility and application of these datasets BIB002 BIB001 . Since the establishment of a digital archive in 1992 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/National Geophysical Data Center (NOAA/NGDC), these nighttime data have been widely exploited by the scientific community. During the last two decades, nine satellites (i.e., from F10 to F18) carrying the OLS have been launched and used to collect nighttime images. Several different datasets, ranging from daily raw data to time-series "stable light" data, have been developed and applied to various observation areas. Popular applications of the DMSP/OLS nighttime images include monitoring human settlement BIB003 BIB015 ; estimating urban population  and population density BIB004 , socio-economic activity BIB009 , energy and electricity consumption BIB016 , and gas emissions BIB005 ; measuring impacts of urban growth on the environment BIB008 ; detecting nocturnal fishing vessels  ; mapping nighttime sky brightness BIB006 and forest fires BIB007 ; assessing effects of emissions on ecosystem and human health BIB012 BIB010 ; and evaluating damage from natural disasters BIB011 and military action during wars BIB013 . While the applications of DMSP/OLS nighttime light images have diversified over time, the disadvantages of these images are widely acknowledged, and the Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) of the National Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) was launched in 2011 to collect nighttime images of improved quality BIB014 . Scientific studies based on VIIRS nighttime images are currently in the infant stage because of the lesser-established data-processing methods, and the extracted datasets do not meet the long-term time series requirements of some research. DMSP/OLS nighttime light images remain the dominant source for observations of nighttime VNIR emissions, but there has not been a comprehensive review of the applications of DMSP/OLS nighttime light images. Specifically, readers and even some users of the DMSP/OLS database may be confused by the differences among the various datasets and their suitability for different research objectives (e.g., the digital values in "stable light" dataset and time series dataset of the DMSP/OLS data have the same range but represent different light information), and may not have a concrete understanding of the status quo and research trends related to the datasets. Given the recent launch of the new VIIRS, this paper presents a review of the applications of DMSP/OLS nighttime light images over the past two decades. The purpose of this review is threefold. First, for novices using the DMSP/OLS nighttime light data, this review provides guidance on the pros and cons of different datasets of nighttime light data, and choosing the appropriate dataset. Second, for experienced researchers using these datasets, this paper provides an overall perspective on research trends and gaps, which can inspire more in-depth or interdisciplinary analysis based on these datasets. Third, for producers of different versions of data product, this study can help identify the most pressing technical challenges on preprocessing of the original data and developing algorithms for retrieving information from the data. Our principal focus is on the differences in data processing, research trends, and methods used among the different application areas. In addition, we provide a general discussion on the prospective uses of DMSP/OLS nighttime light images. To make valid comparisons among applications, the following three criteria were used to select publications from the ISI Web of Knowledge: (1) a web search using the terms and Boolean operators "DMSP" or "OLS" or "nighttime light(s)" or "night light(s)" or "night-time light(s)"; (2) DMSP/OLS nighttime light images are the main data source; and (3) results that were published in journals and other outlets contained in the Scientific Citation Index Expanded (SCI/E) and Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) bibliographic databases between 1992 and 2013. After removing articles that failed to meet these criteria, we narrowed the original 189 articles identified by the search terms (on 29 June 2014) to the 144 articles included in this review for in-depth analysis (A list of the 144 articles can be found in the supplementary material). The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. We present a general summary of the characteristics of DMSP/OLS nighttime images in Section 2, followed by an examination of the features of the different datasets in Section 3. An analysis of research outputs based on the selected 144 articles is provided in Section 4. We summarize methods used to extract information from DMSP/OLS nighttime light images among various research areas in Section 5. Finally, we offer a general perspective on the remaining challenges to applying data extracted from DMSP/OLS nighttime images in Section 6 and a conclusion in Section 7.