Elvidge, Christopher 
RELATION BETWEEN FOSSIL FUEL TRACE GAS EMISSIONS AND SATELLITE 
OBSERVATIONS OF NOCTURNAL LIGHTING 
C.D. ELVIDGE', M.L. IMHOFF", P.C. SUTTON" 
'NOAA National Geophysical Data Center 
cde@ngdc.noaa.gov 
" NASA Goddard Space Flight Center 
mimhoff@ltpmail.gsfc.nasa.gov 
" University of Denver, Department of Geography 
psutton@du.edu 
Inter-technical Commission Session IC-22 
KEY WORDS: DMSP, nighttime lights, trace gas emissions. 
ABSTRACT 
The vast majority of the world's fossil fuel trace gas emission sources can be detected and mapped using nighttime low 
light imaging data from the U.S. Air Force Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Operational Linescan 
System (OLS). This includes human settlements, industrial and commercial facilities, and gas flares. Nocturnal lighting 
could be regarded as one of the defining features of concentrated human activity. Outdoor lighting is used extensively 
worldwide in residential, commercial, industrial, public facilities and roadways. The spatial linkage between nocturnal 
lighting and the locations of concentrated fossil fuel consumption suggests the possibility that observations of the extent 
or brightness of nocturnal lighting may be used to make national estimates of fossil fuel trace gas emissions and to 
model the spatial distribution of these emissions at high spatial resolution (-1 km). The relevance of such products to the 
objectives of the Kyoto Protocol is discussed. 
1 INTRODUCTION 
A number of scientific and policy objectives related to the build up of atmospheric CO, and other trace gases are on 
hold due to the lack of an global capability to observe and monitor fossil trace gas emission sources. Traditional 
satellite remote sensing systems with global data acquisition capabilities have all focused on the observation of natural 
systems as their design criteria. If global observation of human activity was set as a design criteria, what wavelength(s) 
would be investigated? Radio frequencies emitted by power lines, electrical devices and cellular telephones might be a 
good starting point! 
For the past six years we have been investigating the satellite observation of nocturnal lighting collected by the U.S. Air 
Force Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Operational Linescan System (OLS) as a proxy measure of 
human activity. This instrument has a low-light imaging capability, which was designed for the observation of clouds 
illuminated by moonlight. In addition to moonlit clouds, the data can be used to detect light sources present at the 
earth's surface such as cities, towns, industrial sites, gas flares and fires present at the earth's surface (see Figure 1). 
These are the principal sources of anthropogenic trace gas emissions. We have found that the cumulative brightness of 
lights to be highly correlated to the annual carbon emissions at the state level in the USA (Figure 2). 
While national level fossil fuel consumption levels are believed to be reported with reasonable accuracy, national level 
maps depicting the spatial and temporal distribution of emissions are not available. In this paper we describe how 
radiance calibrated nighttime lights could be used to make independent estimates of national trace gas emissions from 
fossil fuel consumption. We also describe how the lights could be used to model the global spatial distribution of fossil 
fuel trace gas emissions. We conclude with a discussion of the relevance such products would have in service to the 
Kyoto Protocol. 
  
International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXIII, Part B7. Amsterdam 2000. 397