Introduction to Nighttime Light Raster Data at Provincial, Prefectural, and County Levels in China

  Nighttime lights directly reflect regional industrialization levels(工业化水平) and urbanization levels(城市化水平), while partially indicating population concentration patterns. Simultaneously, surface brightness observations characterize human activity intensity to some extent. Long-term nighttime light data sequences hold significant reference value for urban development studies.

  Current applications of nighttime light data primarily focus on urban expansion research, socioeconomic factor estimation, and interdisciplinary studies in environmental science, disaster management, fisheries, and energy sectors.

• Urban Expansion Monitoring: In this rapidly developing era, traditional statistical methods often provide outdated urban boundary definitions before implementation. Nighttime light imagery targeting human settlements offers an accurate, direct, cost-effective and time-efficient approach for monitoring urban expansion.

• Socioeconomic Factor Estimation: The contrast between illuminated and dark areas in nighttime light imagery makes it a powerful tool for studying intensive human activities and their impacts. Notably, positive correlations exist between light intensity and socioeconomic indicators, enabling quantitative estimation of urbanization levels(城市化水平), population distribution(人口分布), GDP, energy consumption(能耗量), carbon emissions(碳排放量), and other factors.

• Interdisciplinary Applications: Beyond socioeconomic studies, exploratory applications have extended to environmental monitoring, disaster management, fishery surveillance, and energy supervision. Current research includes spatial analysis of light pollution propagation, fire management and resource conservation, fisheries monitoring, and gas flaring observation.

  CnOpenData presents China's nighttime light raster data organized through three administrative-level datasets (provincial, prefectural, and county divisions), primarily providing mean nighttime light values.

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Temporal Coverage

1992-2023

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Field Description

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Sample Data

China Nighttime Light Raster Data - Provincial Level

China Nighttime Light Raster Data - Prefectural Level

China Nighttime Light Raster Data - County Level

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Reference Literature

• Xu Kangning, Chen Fenglong, Liu Xiuyan, 2015, "The Authenticity of China's Economic Growth: A Test Based on Global Nighttime Light Data," Economic Research Journal, No.9.
• Xuan Yang, Wu Kaiwen, 2023, "Overtime Work and Labor Income Share: Empirical Evidence from Satellite Nighttime Light Data," The Journal of World Economy, No.10.

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Update Frequency

Annual Update