Nighttime light (NTL) remote sensing provides a unique perspective to observe the Earth at night. During the past three decades, there are two types of commonly used nighttime remote sensing data: the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Operational Linescan System (DMSP-OLS) and the Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (NPP-VIIRS). DMSP-OLS is the longest-running nighttime light satellite with yearly products from 1992–2013; the new generation of NPP-VIIRS nighttime light data enjoys performance improvements, including higher spatial resolution, radiometric detection capacity, and no saturation in urban areas. Thanks to the opening and contribution of data, the NTL remote sensing technology has been widely used in various fields, such as social and economic parameters estimation, urban mapping, fishing activity monitoring, gas flaring detection, environment and health effects, and humanitarian crises. Compared with ordinary (daytime) remote sensing methods, NTL remote sensing can reflect human activities more directly, but the night-time light, a kind of weak information, is affected by the atmosphere, clouds, moonlight, skylight, underlying surface, obstacles, light source direction, and observation angle during the imaging process, and the complex influence of various factors result in great challenges for the quantitative retrieval. Therefore, NTL remote sensing applications are mainly based on qualitative analysis such as correlation and relative change analysis.
In recent years, more and more NTL data become available, including those captured from the International Space Station (ISS) and various newly launched satellites, e.g., EROS-B, SAC-C/D, Jilin-01, Luojia1-01, and SDGSAT-1. In addition, ground-based and UAV-based NTL measurements further enrich the NTL data with details and different perspectives. The increasing high-resolution and multi-spectral NTL data provide opportunities to expand the application scenarios of NTL remote sensing technology. This special issue aims to seek original manuscripts regarding the new advances in NTL remote sensing technology and applications. The contributions as experimental studies, applied research, case studies, and reviewing the state-of-the-art covering the whole field of NTL remote sensing are welcomed. The topic includes, but is not limited to, the followings:
• NTL data acquisition;
• Geometry correction of NTL data;
• Radiation normalization processing of multi-source NTL data;
• Quantitative retrieval of surface variables from NTL data;
• Global or regional NTL-derived product generation;
• Urban light pollution monitoring and assessment;
• Nighttime light and human health;
• Socioeconomic parameters dynamic estimation;
• Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with NTL data;
• Humanitarian crisis assessment using NTL data;
• Innovative applications of new NTL data;
• Fusion of NTL remote sensing with geospatial big data.
Nighttime light (NTL) remote sensing provides a unique perspective to observe the Earth at night. During the past three decades, there are two types of commonly used nighttime remote sensing data: the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Operational Linescan System (DMSP-OLS) and the Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (NPP-VIIRS). DMSP-OLS is the longest-running nighttime light satellite with yearly products from 1992–2013; the new generation of NPP-VIIRS nighttime light data enjoys performance improvements, including higher spatial resolution, radiometric detection capacity, and no saturation in urban areas. Thanks to the opening and contribution of data, the NTL remote sensing technology has been widely used in various fields, such as social and economic parameters estimation, urban mapping, fishing activity monitoring, gas flaring detection, environment and health effects, and humanitarian crises. Compared with ordinary (daytime) remote sensing methods, NTL remote sensing can reflect human activities more directly, but the night-time light, a kind of weak information, is affected by the atmosphere, clouds, moonlight, skylight, underlying surface, obstacles, light source direction, and observation angle during the imaging process, and the complex influence of various factors result in great challenges for the quantitative retrieval. Therefore, NTL remote sensing applications are mainly based on qualitative analysis such as correlation and relative change analysis.
In recent years, more and more NTL data become available, including those captured from the International Space Station (ISS) and various newly launched satellites, e.g., EROS-B, SAC-C/D, Jilin-01, Luojia1-01, and SDGSAT-1. In addition, ground-based and UAV-based NTL measurements further enrich the NTL data with details and different perspectives. The increasing high-resolution and multi-spectral NTL data provide opportunities to expand the application scenarios of NTL remote sensing technology. This special issue aims to seek original manuscripts regarding the new advances in NTL remote sensing technology and applications. The contributions as experimental studies, applied research, case studies, and reviewing the state-of-the-art covering the whole field of NTL remote sensing are welcomed. The topic includes, but is not limited to, the followings:
• NTL data acquisition;
• Geometry correction of NTL data;
• Radiation normalization processing of multi-source NTL data;
• Quantitative retrieval of surface variables from NTL data;
• Global or regional NTL-derived product generation;
• Urban light pollution monitoring and assessment;
• Nighttime light and human health;
• Socioeconomic parameters dynamic estimation;
• Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with NTL data;
• Humanitarian crisis assessment using NTL data;
• Innovative applications of new NTL data;
• Fusion of NTL remote sensing with geospatial big data.
