Developing a new cross-sensor calibration model for DMSP-OLS and Suomi-NPP VIIRS night-light imageries

Abstract Night-time light (NTL) data provides a great opportunity to monitor human activities and settlements. Currently, global-scale NTL data are acquired by two satellite sensors, i.e., DMSP-OLS and VIIRS, but the data collected by the satellites are not compatible. To address this issue, we proposed a method for generating long-term and consistent NTL data. First, a logistic model was employed to estimate and smooth the missing DMSP-OLS data. Second, the Lomb-Scargle Periodogram technique was used to statistically examine the presence of seasonality of monthly VIIRS time series. The seasonal effect, noisy and unstable observations in VIIRS were eliminated by the BFAST time-series decomposition algorithm. Then, we proposed a residuals corrected geographically weighted regression model (GWRc) to generate DMSP-like VIIRS data. A consistent NTL time series from 1996 to 2017 was formed by combining the DMSP-OLS and synthetic DMSP-like VIIRS data. Our assessment shows that the proposed GWRc model outperformed existing methods (e.g., power function model), yielding a lower regression RMSE (6.36), a significantly improved pixel-level NTL intensity consistency (SNDI = 82.73, R2 = 0.986) and provided more coherent results when used for urban area extraction. The proposed method can be used to extend NTL time series, and in conjunction with the upcoming yearly VIIRS data and Black Marble daily VIIRS data, it is possible to support long-term NTL-based studies such as monitoring light pollution in ecosystems, and mapping human activities.