Mapping urban development and gas

flaring activity with nighttime VIIRS data

Chris Elvidge
Earth Observation Group
NOAA-NESDIS National Geophysical Data Center
325 Broadway, Boulder, Colorado 80305 USA
Tel. 1-303-497-6121
Email: chris.elvidge@noaa.gov
Kimberly Baugh, Mikhail Zhizhin, Feng Chi Hsu
Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences
University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado USA
June 22, 2012

Lights
At
Night!
Boats

Cities
Industrial Sites

Gas Flares

Fires

Artificial lighting is a excellent remote sensing observable!

Two Satellite Systems Collect Global

Low Light Imaging Data at Nights

U.S. Air Force Defense Meteorological

Satellite Program (DMSP) Operational
Linescan System (OLS). 1972 to present.
NASA-NOAA Suomi NPP Visible Infrared
Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS).
Launched October 28, 2011.

In both cases the purpose of the low light imaging is the

detection of moonlit clouds. An instrument optimized for
observing nighttime lights has not yet been flown.

DMSP Nighttime Visible

May 21, 2012 at ~19:30 local time

NGDC has produced a time series of DMSP

annual cloud-free nighttime lights
composites (1992-2011)

Available at:

Applications for satellite observed nighttime lights

Spatial proxy for human variables

Detection of power outages

Tracking power grid recovery

Estimation of gas flaring volumes

Astronomical conditions
Site selection for astronomical observatories
Ecological studies
Human health studies

Disaster monitoring

Exurban development
Density of constructed surfaces
Urbanization rates
Habitat fragmentation / encroachment

Nocturnal lighting impacts

Population
Economic activity
Fossil fuel CO2 emissions

CO2 emission estimates

Support to gas flaring reduction efforts

Fisheries

Estimation of fishing stocks based on catch per unit effort (CPU)

Detection of illegal, unregulated, unreported (IUU) fishing

VIIRS vs OLS Milan Region, January 8, 2012

VIIRS
14 bit quantization
750 m GSD
~750 m GIFOV
1:30 am overpass
Radiometric calibration
No saturation

OLS
6 bit quantization
2.7 km GSD
5 km+ GIFOV
8:00 pm overpass
No in-flight calibration
Saturation in urban center
in operational data

VIIRS Nighttime Day / Night Band (DNB)

May 21, 2012 at ~ 01:30 local time zero moonlight

VIIRS versus DMSP May 21, 2012

VIIRS

OLS

Detection of Villages in VIIRS Nighttime Visible (DNB)

May 21, 2012 at ~ 01:30 local time

VIIRS

OLS

What Else VIIRS Has To Offer

Fire detections - discriminate
lights from combustion sources.
Cloud optical thickness and
snow cover to rate the quality of
light detections.

Clouds and their

properties
Fires

Snow cover

What is being developed

Light detection algorithm that can

work through stray light
Terrain correction DNB data are
not terrain corrected since the
primary mission is detection of
moonlit clouds.
Atmospheric correction to estimate
upwelling radiances at the earth
surface.

VIIRS Stray Light

Along track transect over open ocean

Stray
Light

Light Detection
Cross track transect with city lights
- in stray light region

NGDCs plan for a 2012 global

nighttime lights from VIIRS

Initial product will be a mosaic made

with a relatively low number of repeat
observation. October 2012.
Subsequently a full year product will be
processed to characterize the variability
in lighting. March 2013.
Participate in GEO SB-04 collaboration.

2012-2015 Work Plan - Task SB-04:

Task Lead: Qihao Weng, Indiana State University

Improve the overall coordination of urban observations, monitoring,

forecasting, and assessment initiatives worldwide.
Support the development of global urban observation and analysis
systems.
Produce up-to-date information on the status and development of the
urban system from local to global scale.
Fill gaps in integration of global urban observations with (i) data
characterizing urban ecosystems, built environment, air quality, and
carbon emission; and (ii) indicators of population density,
environmental quality, and quality of life; and (iii) patterns of human,
environmental and infectious diseases.
Develop innovative concepts and techniques in support of effective
urban sensing and sustainable urban development.

Targets by 2015
TARGET 1. Improve the overall
coordination of urban
observations, monitoring,
forecasting, and assessment
initiatives worldwide.

TARGET 2. Support the

development of global urban
observation and analysis
systems.

TARGET 3. Produce up-todate information on the

status and development of
the urban system from
local to global scale.
TARGET 4. Fill gaps
in integration of global urban
observations with (i) data
characterizing urban ecosystems,
built environment, air quality, and
carbon emission; and (ii)
indicators of population density,
environmental quality, and quality
of life; and (iii) patterns of human,
environmental and infectious
diseases.
TARGET 5. Develop innovative
concepts and techniques in
support of effective urban sensing
and sustainable urban
development.

Task Outputs / Activities, 20122015

Action 1: GEO SB-04 Symposium
in 2012 (in conjunction with
EORSA2012)
Action 2: Book - Global Urban Monitoring and Assessment thru Earth
Observation.
Action 3: GEO SB-04 Symposium in 2013 (in conjt with JURSE2013)
Action 4: Develop EU-China collaboration in urbanization monitoring
within the Dragon 3 programme
Action 5: Generation and provision of data set on spatio-temporal
development (1975-2010) of actual 26 mega-cities.
Action 6: Set-up of global data base of binary settlements masks (Global
Urban Footprint 2012/2013) derived from SAR data of TanDEM-X mission.
Action 7: The USGS will accomplish 2011 impervious surface and urban
land cover mapping for the conterminous United States.
Action 8:Construction of a 2012 nighttime lights of the world using Suomi
NPP VIIRS data (NOAA-NGDC).
Action 9: GEO Grid/AIST and the University of Tokyo are developing
ASTER Global Urban Area Map (3734 cities of more than 0.1 million).
Action 10:The National Observatory of Athens is developing advanced
methodologies for the study of the thermal environment of cities.
Action 11: Developing methods to monitor high resolution dynamics of
land reflectance in China
Action 12: Participate in NASAs HyspIRI Science Study Group.

Gas Flaring

Widely used practice for disposing of natural

gas at oil production facilities in remote or
impoverished areas.
Volume estimated at 138 billion cubic meters
in 2011 from DMSP data.
About 1% of total fossil fuel CO2 emissions.
Curtailing gas flaring is low hanging fruit
for carbon emission reductions.
Because of the lack of reporting satellite
remote sensing is the best approach for
comprehensive monitoring of gas flaring.

VIIRS Gas Flaring Monitoring System

Supported under the JPSS Proving

Ground program
Heritage NGDC uses DMSP
nighttime lights to estimate annual
gas flaring volumes in 65 countries
MODIS and VIIRS thermal anomalies
are only processed on land no
coverage for offshore flares

End Users

World Bank Global Gas Flaring Reduction

(GGFR) initiative will use the data to track
the effectiveness of gas flaring reduction
efforts.
California Air Resources Board will use the
data to calculate the total carbon emissions
associated with fuel imported into the state
from various oil fields around the world.
NOAAs Carbon Tracker spatial distribution
and magnitude of carbon emissions from
gas flaring.

Persian Gulf May 3, 2012

Flares show up as hotspot in M12 (3.7 um) and M13 (4 um)

M12

M13

the standard fire band

Persian Gulf May 3, 2012

Many more flares show up as hotspot in M10 (1.61 um)

M10

more detections
Less clutter gas flares are
Hotter than biomass burning

M13

the standard fire band

At Night Gas Flares Can Be Detected in

Four Short Wavelength Bands

DNB 0.7 um

M7 0.865 um

M8 1.24 um

M10 1.61 um

Approach

Gas flare detection at night using the M10

band
Radiances extracted from DNB,
M7,8,10,12,13,14,15,16.
Flare temperature and radiant output
estimated through Planck curve fitting
Daily summaries will be distributed as kml for
display in Google Earth
Monthly and annual composites will be
produced for estimation of flared gas volume
and carbon emission

June 17, 2012 IR-sources

June 17, 2012 IR-sources

June 17, 2012 IR-sources

Estimating Flare Temperature and Radiant Output

* = observed radiances

Simultaneous fitting assuming a hot

source and a cooler background

Pros

Flare
Radiation

Background
Radiation

No external background pixel required

Possibility to remove BG values
Accommodates high intensity flares
with emission in M14-16
Error can be estimated relative to
observed radiances
May be used to filter South Atlantic
Anomaly noise?

Cons

Modeled Radiant Emissions

Use observed radiances from

M7,8,10,12,13,14,15,16
Solve of flare and background
temperatures and magnitudes
simultaneously
Variables: TFLR, TBG, FLR, BG

Constraints are required to guide the

solutions
Poor performance expected for low
intensity detections that lack
detectable emission in M7-8

VIIRS Cloud Algorithm Identifies

Flares as Cloud

M10 Basra, Iraq

M13

Cloud mask

Cloud
optical
thickness

Spectral confusion between clouds and gas flares

Summary

VIIRS provides substantial

improvements over DMSP for global
observation of nighttime lights and
gas flaring
NGDC is developing the capability to
produce global nighttime lights and
gas flaring data products
These will be made openly accessible