Night-time imagery as a tool for global mapping of socioeconomic parameters and greenhouse gas emissions

Night-time satellite imagery acquired between October 1994 and March 1995 i s here exploited to derive economic and energy-related global maps. By cons idering the lit area of a city, and combining this with ancillary statistic al information, an analysis was performed designed to investigate the poten tial of night-time imagery for quantitative estimation of global socioecono mic parameters. An attempt to estimate global urban population using correl ations of lit area and urban populations to derive country-level relationsh ips accounted for over 90% of the quoted total. Furthermore, the total lit area of a country has a statistically significant high correlation value wi th other parameters, specifically Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and total ca rbon dioxide (CO2) emission. The new technique is limited by the spatial re solution of the sensor and the poorer correlation using night-time lights f or centrally-planned economies. These findings offer great potential for sy noptic global mapping of such parameters in the future.