CHANGE DETECTION OF NIGHT TIME LIGHTS FROM GAS FLARES VISIBLE FROM SPACE

Article Name:		CHANGE DETECTION OF NIGHT TIME LIGHTS FROM GAS FLARES VISIBLE FROM SPACE
Authors:		M.N. Zhizhin (Russia), A.I. Godunov (Russia), D.P. Medvedev (Russia)
Address:		M.N. Zhizhin jjn@wdcb.ru Space Research Institute and Geophysical Center, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia A.I. Godunov Space Research Institute and Geophysical Center, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia D.P. Medvedev Space Research Institute and Geophysical Center, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
Abstract:		Change detection in night time lights visible from space provides a proxy to estimate anthropomorphic pressure on our environment and socio-economic trends. It is possible to visualize and to estimate indirectly the dynamics of oil field exploration and the greenhouse gas emission from the gas flares. The night time lights are derived from the visible band digital images from the DMSP satellites for the time period from 1992 to 2010. The yearly maps of the night time lights observation frequency and brightness are organized in multidimensional array stored in a special database accessible as a web data service. The change in the night time lights is visualized with a special tile-server overlay at the Google Maps. The gas flare detection and time tracking algorithm is implemented in Matlab. The flare detection results are also plotted at the Google Maps and can be compared with the lights visible at day time in the high-definition satellite images.
Language:		Russian

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