Abstract:

Remote sensing of nighttime lights has been shown as a good surrogate for estimating population and economic activity at national and sub-national scales, using DMSP satellites. However, few studies have examined the factors explaining differences in nighttime brightness of cities at a global scale. In this study, we derived quantitative estimates of nighttime lights with the new VIIRS sensor onboard the Suomi NPP satellite in January 2014 and in July 2014, with two variables: mean brightness and percent lit area. We performed a global analysis of all densely populated areas (n=4153, mostly corresponding to metropolitan areas), which we defined using high spatial resolution Landscan population data. National GDP per capita was better in explaining nighttime brightness levels (0.60

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