Correcting Incompatible DN Values and Geometric Errors in Nighttime Lights Time-Series Images

The Defense Meteorological Satellite Program's Operational Linescan System (DMSP-OLS) nighttime lights imagery has proven to be a powerful remote sensing tool to monitor urbanization and assess socioeconomic activities at large scales. However, the existence of incompatible digital number (DN)...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on geoscience and remote sensing 2015-04, Vol.53 (4), p.2039-2049
Main Authors: Naizhuo Zhao, Yuyu Zhou, Samson, Eric L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Brightness
Calibration
China
Digital imaging
DMSP satellites
Economic indicators
Economics
GDP
Geometric error
Gross Domestic Product
gross domestic product (GDP)
Light
Meteorological satellites
Night
nighttime lights development/decay
nighttime lights time series (NLT) images
OTHER INSTRUMENTATION
Remote sensing
Satellites
Sociology
Statistics
Trends
Urban areas
Urbanization
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The Defense Meteorological Satellite Program's Operational Linescan System (DMSP-OLS) nighttime lights imagery has proven to be a powerful remote sensing tool to monitor urbanization and assess socioeconomic activities at large scales. However, the existence of incompatible digital number (DN) values and geometric errors severely limit application of nighttime light image data on multiyear quantitative research. In this paper, we extend and improve previous studies on intercalibrating nighttime lights image data to obtain more compatible and reliable nighttime lights time-series (NLT) image data for China and the U.S. through four steps, namely, intercalibration, geometric correction, steady-increase adjustment, and population data correction. We then use gross domestic product (GDP) data to test the processed NLT image data indirectly and find that sum light (summed DN value of pixels in a nighttime light image) maintains apparent increase trends with relatively large GDP growth rates but does not increase or decrease with relatively small GDP growth rates. As nighttime light is a sensitive indicator for economic activity, the temporally consistent trends between sum light and GDP growth rate imply that brightness of nighttime lights on the ground is correctly represented by the processed NLT image data. Finally, through analyzing the corrected NLT image data from 1992 to 2008, we find that China experienced apparent nighttime lights development in 1992-1997 and 2001-2008, respectively, and the U.S. showed nighttime lights decay in large areas after 2001.
ISSN:0196-2892
1558-0644
DOI:10.1109/TGRS.2014.2352598