DMSP-OLS Radiance Calibrated Nighttime Lights Time Series with Intercalibration

Remote Sensing

Feng-Chi Hsu³  Kimberly E. Baugh³  Tilottama Ghosh³  Mikhail Zhizhin³  Christopher D. Elvidge¹  Richard Müller² 

[1] National Geophysical Data Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80305, USA; E-Mail:Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado at Boulder, 216 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309, USA;;Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado at Boulder, 216 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309, USA; E-Mails:

关键词: nighttime lights;    DMSP;    OLS;   

DOI  :  10.3390/rs70201855

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

The Defense Meteorological Satellite Program-Operational Linescan System (DMSP-OLS) stable lights products are made using operational OLS data collected at high gain settings, resulting in sensor saturation on brightly lit areas, such as city centers. This has been a paramount shortcoming of the DMSP-OLS stable lights time series. This study outlines a methodology that greatly expands the dynamic range of the OLS data using observations made at different fixed-gain settings, and by incorporating the areas not affected by saturation from the stable lights product. The radiances for the fixed-gain data are computed based on each OLS sensor’s pre-flight calibration. The result is a product known as the OLS radiance calibrated nighttime lights. A total of eight global datasets have been produced, representing years from 1996 to 2010. To further facilitate the usefulness of these data for time-series analyses, corrections have been made to counter the sensitivity differences of the sensors, and coefficients are provided to adjust the datasets to allow inter-comparison.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.