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Full catalog/ALAN_VIIRS_CONUS
ALAN_VIIRS_CONUS·v1·dataset

Yearly map of nighttime lights by US county (VIIRS)

Annual Summary of Artificial Light At Night from VIIRS/S-NPP at CONUS County and Census Tract V1 (ALAN_VIIRS_CONUS) at GES DISC
atmosphere NASA GES_DISC Level 4
In plain English

What it measures. Yearly summaries of how much artificial light shines at night across the continental United States, broken down by county and census tract, for the years 2012 to 2020.

How it's made. Derived from the Suomi-NPP VIIRS Day/Night Band nighttime-lights product (part of NASA's Black Marble suite) and summarized to county and tract boundaries.

How & where you'd use it. Lets researchers study patterns of nighttime light by community, useful for work on light pollution and links to public health and air quality.

What's measured

ATMOSPHERE › AIR QUALITYSPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › VISIBLE WAVELENGTHSHUMAN DIMENSIONS › NATURAL HAZARDS

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2012-01-01 → 2020-12-31
  • Measured bySuomi-NPP (VIIRS)
  • Processing levelLevel 4
  • Spatial extent-129.9979, 20.00208, -60.00208, 49.99792
  • StatusCOMPLETE

What you can do with it

  • Map air pollutants — NO₂, aerosols, ozone
  • Track greenhouse gases and Earth's energy budget
  • Feed weather and air-quality analysis
Official description

This product provides detailed information about the satellite-based data on artificial light at night (ALAN). The Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S-NPP) Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Day/Night Band (DNB) nighttime lights (NTL) product (VNP46A4, DOI: 10.5067/VIIRS/VNP46A4.001 ) in NASA’s Black Marble suite is used to derive annual summary of ALAN levels throughout the CONUS at both county and tract level for the period of 2012-2020. The PI Dr. Qian Xiao is a member of NASA Heath and Air Quality Applied Sciences Team (HAQAST).

Get the data

alan_viirs_conus_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="ALAN_VIIRS_CONUS",
    version="1",
    bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9),  # your area (W,S,E,N)
    temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"),       # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results)   # stream straight from GES_DISC
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.