Estimation of Urban Population Dynamics Using DMSP-OLS Night-Time Lights Time Series Sensors Data

Abstract

Nocturnal lighting is a primary method for enabling human activities. Since the release of the digital archives of Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Operational Line Scanner (DMSP/OLS) radiance calibrated nighttime light data in 1992, a variety of data sets based on this database have been produced and applied to monitor and analyze human activities and natural phenomena. DMSP uses OLS sensor, which has an oscillating scan radiometer with a broad field of view and captures images at a nominal resolution. Correlations at aggregate scales and analysis of the saturated areas of the images showed the strong relation between light intensity and the populations. The demographics of the People’s Republic of China are identified by a large population, whose population is about 19% of the total world population. Beijing, Guangdong, and Tianjin are the metropolises of China, which contribute the maximum population. Using the regression analysis, the metropolises population data can be extracted from the DMSP nighttime data ( $\text{r}^{\mathrm {\mathbf {2}}}=0.96$ ). Consequently, the DMSP imagery may prove to be useful to inform a smart interpolation program to improve maps and data sets of human population distributions in the areas of the world, where good census data may not be available or do not exist.