An extended time-series (2000–2018) of global NPP-VIIRS-like nighttime light data from a cross-sensor calibration

Abstract. The nighttime light (NTL) satellite data have been widely used to investigate urbanization process. The Defense Meteorological Satellite Program-Operational Linescan System (DMSP-OLS) stable nighttime light data and Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership-Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (NPP-VIIRS) nighttime light data are two widely used NTL datasets. However, the difference of their spatial resolutions and sensor design makes it difficult to directly use these two datasets together for a long-term analysis of urbanization. To solve this issue, an extended time-series (2000–2018) of NPP-VIIRS-like NTL data were proposed in this study through a cross-sensor calibration from DMSP-OLS NTL data (2000–2012) and a composition of monthly NPP-VIIRS NTL data (2013–2018). Compared with the annual composited NPP-VIIRS NTL data in 2012, our product of extended NPP-VIIRS-like NTL data shows a good consistency at the pixel and city levels with R² of 0.87 and 0.95, respectively. We also found that our product has a good accuracy by comparing with DMSP-OLS radiance calibrated NTL (RNTL) data in 2000, 2004, 2006, and 2010. Generally, our extended NPP-VIIRS-like NTL data (2000–2018) have a good spatial pattern and temporal consistency, which are similar to the composited NPP-VIIRS NTL data. In addition, the resulting product could be easily updated and provide a useful proxy to monitor the dynamics of demographic and socio-economic activities for a longer time period compared to existing products. The extended time-series (2000–2018) of nighttime light data are freely accessible at https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/YGIVCD (Chen et al., 2020).