The nature of the diffuse light near cities detected in nighttime satellite imagery

Diffuse glow has been observed around brightly lit cities in nighttime satellite imagery since at least the first publication of large scale maps in the late 1990s. In the literature, this has often been assumed to be an error related to the sensor, and referred to as “blooming”, presumably in relat...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2020-05, Vol.10 (1), p.7829-7829, Article 7829
Main Authors: Sanchez de Miguel, Alejandro, Kyba, Christopher C. M., Zamorano, Jaime, Gallego, Jesús, Gaston, Kevin J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
631/158/1469
639/33/34/2810
639/624/1075/1078
704/172/4081
Aerosols
Cities
Humanities and Social Sciences
Light
Light sources
Meteorological satellites
multidisciplinary
Nighttime
Radiometers
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
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Summary:Diffuse glow has been observed around brightly lit cities in nighttime satellite imagery since at least the first publication of large scale maps in the late 1990s. In the literature, this has often been assumed to be an error related to the sensor, and referred to as “blooming”, presumably in relation to the effect that can occur when using a CCD to photograph a bright light source. Here we show that the effect seen on the DMSP/OLS, SNPP/VIIRS-DNB and ISS is not only instrumental, but in fact represents a real detection of light scattered by the atmosphere. Data from the Universidad Complutense Madrid sky brightness survey are compared to nighttime imagery from multiple sensors with differing spatial resolutions, and found to be strongly correlated. These results suggest that it should be possible for a future space-based imaging radiometer to monitor changes in the diffuse artificial skyglow of cities.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-020-64673-2