Using DMSP-OLS light frequency data to categorize urban environments associated with US climate observing stations

An approach is presented for characterizing the urban environment surroundi ng 1221 US Historical Climatology Network (US HCN) stations using light fre quency data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program-Operational L inescan System (DMSP-OLS) sensor. Each grid cell of the DMSP-OLS data was t hresholded into urban, suburban and rural categories. Categorized cell grou ps within 15km of each US HCN station were input into a decision logic to c ategorize the station. The station categorization was compared with existin g and derived categorizations using station metadata and 1990 Census Bureau population density data.