The proportions of CO₂ emissions in each land cover of the three cities: Beijing (a), Shanghai (b), and Guangzhou (c).

<p>The proportions of CO₂ emissions in each land cover of the three cities: Beijing (a), Shanghai (b), and Guangzhou (c).</p

The original Landsat Thematic Mapper images, land cover dataset, and three global emission maps of three cities (Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou).

<p>The Landsat Thematic Mapper images of these cities are from the United States Geological Survey (USGS), and the land cover dataset is from the National Geomatics Center of China (NGCC).</p

Comparison of the global emission maps based on nightlight and population data to the Vulcan inventory for U.S. domain at the 0.1° resolution.

<p>Comparison of the global emission maps based on nightlight and population data to the Vulcan inventory for U.S. domain at the 0.1° resolution.</p

Comparison of emission results only distributed by three different types of nighttime lights at the state unit of the United States: NPP-VIIRS (a), RCP-DMSP-OLS (b), and SLP-DMSP-OLS (c).

<p>Comparison of emission results only distributed by three different types of nighttime lights at the state unit of the United States: NPP-VIIRS (a), RCP-DMSP-OLS (b), and SLP-DMSP-OLS (c).</p

Comparison between the actual statistical data of CO₂ emissions and the estimated emissions of different emission maps at the state unit of the United States.

<p>Comparison between the actual statistical data of CO₂ emissions and the estimated emissions of different emission maps at the state unit of the United States.</p

Regional spatial distributions of CO₂ emissions in the PRD China (a), Northeastern USA (b), and Western Europe (c).

<p>Regional spatial distributions of CO₂ emissions in the PRD China (a), Northeastern USA (b), and Western Europe (c).</p

Evaluation of NPP-VIIRS Nighttime Light Data for Mapping Global Fossil Fuel Combustion CO₂ Emissions: A Comparison with DMSP-OLS Nighttime Light Data

<div><p>Recently, the stable light products and radiance calibrated products from Defense Meteorological Satellite Program’s (DMSP) Operational Linescan System (OLS) have been useful for mapping global fossil fuel carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions at fine spatial resolution. However, few studies on this subject were conducted with the new-generation nighttime light data from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) sensor on the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) Satellite, which has a higher spatial resolution and a wider radiometric detection range than the traditional DMSP-OLS nighttime light data. Therefore, this study performed the first evaluation of the potential of NPP-VIIRS data in estimating the spatial distributions of global CO₂ emissions (excluding power plant emissions). Through a disaggregating model, three global emission maps were then derived from population counts and three different types of nighttime lights data (NPP-VIIRS, the stable light data and radiance calibrated data of DMSP-OLS) for a comparative analysis. The results compared with the reference data of land cover in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou show that the emission areas of map from NPP-VIIRS data have higher spatial consistency of the artificial surfaces and exhibit a more reasonable distribution of CO₂ emission than those of other two maps from DMSP-OLS data. Besides, in contrast to two maps from DMSP-OLS data, the emission map from NPP-VIIRS data is closer to the Vulcan inventory and exhibits a better agreement with the actual statistical data of CO₂ emissions at the level of sub-administrative units of the United States. This study demonstrates that the NPP-VIIRS data can be a powerful tool for studying the spatial distributions of CO₂ emissions, as well as the socioeconomic indicators at multiple scales.</p></div

Comparison of the global emission maps only distributed by nightlights to the Vulcan inventory for U.S. domain at the 0.1° resolution

<p>Comparison of the global emission maps only distributed by nightlights to the Vulcan inventory for U.S. domain at the 0.1° resolution</p