---
license: cc-by-4.0
tags:
- earth-observation
- remote-sensing
- satellite
- geospatial
- night-lights
---

# VIIRS Nighttime Light 
 Radiance composite images using nighttime data from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Day/Night Band (DNB)

| Source | Modality Type | Number of Patches | Patch Size | Total Pixels |
|:-------|:-------------:|:-----------------:|:----------:|:------------:|
|VIIRS Nighttime Light | Nighttime Light |0,0| 1068 x 1068 (10 m) | > Billion |





# Content

| Variable        | Description                                      | Units         |
|-----------------|--------------------------------------------------|---------------|
| `average`       | Average monthly radiance                         | nW/cm²/sr     |
| `average-masked`| Average monthly radiance with background masked  | nW/cm²/sr     |
| `median`        | Median monthly radiance                          | nW/cm²/sr     |
| `median-masked` | Median monthly radiance with background masked   | nW/cm²/sr     |
| `min`           | Minimum monthly radiance                         | nW/cm²/sr     |
| `max`           | Maximum monthly radiance                         | nW/cm²/sr     |
| `cf_cvg`        | Count of cloud-free coverage                     | No.      |
| `cvg`           | Count of total coverage                          | No.      |


2015-2021 Annual VNL V2.1  
2022-2024 Annual VNL V2.2  




# Spatial Coverage

Write about that is similar to S-2 but the latitude is different (180°W, 75°N, 180°E, 65°S)

pan the globe from 75N latitude to 65S

This is a global monotemporal dataset. Nearly every piece of Earth captured by Sentinel-2 is contained at least once in this dataset (and only once, excluding some marginal overlaps).

The following figure demonstrates the spatial coverage (only black pixels are absent): 

#  Example Use 
```python
from fsspec.parquet import open_parquet_file
import pyarrow.parquet as pq
from io import BytesIO
from PIL import Image

```


## Cite
[![arxiv](https://img.shields.io/badge/Open_Access-arxiv:2402.12095-b31b1b)](https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.12095/)
```latex
@inproceedings{Major_TOM,
  title={Major TOM: Expandable Datasets for Earth Observation}, 
  author={Alistair Francis and Mikolaj Czerkawski},
  year={2024},
  booktitle={IGARSS 2024 - 2024 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium}, 
  eprint={2402.12095},
  archivePrefix={arXiv},
  primaryClass={cs.CV}
}
```



**VIIRS Nighttime Light products credit**

Based on: 
[VNL](https://eogdata.mines.edu/products/vnl/)

Many thanks to [**Earth Observation Group (EOG)**](https://payneinstitute.mines.edu/eog/), part of the Payne Institute for Public Policy at Colorado School of Mines, especially **Christopher D. Elvidge**, for their support and consultation.

```
- C.D. Elvidge, M. Zhizhin, T. Ghosh, F-C. Hsu, "Annual time series of global VIIRS nighttime lights derived from monthly averages: 2012 to 2019", Remote Sensing, 2021, 13(5), 922. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13050922.
- C.D. Elvidge, K. Baugh, M. Zhizhin, F.-C. Hsu, and T. Ghosh, “VIIRS night-time lights,” International Journal of Remote Sensing, vol. 38, pp. 5860–5879, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1080/01431161.2017.1342050.
- C.D. Elvidge, K.E. Baugh, M. Zhizhin, and F.-C. Hsu, “Why VIIRS data are superior to DMSP for mapping nighttime lights,” Asia-Pacific Advanced Network 35, vol. 35, p. 62, 2013. http://dx.doi.org/10.7125/APAN.35.7.
```