faviolc/hku-viirs-nighttime-lights-global

🌍 Global 500m-Resolution Monthly VIIRS Nighttime Lights (1992–2024)

Dataset Description

This repository is a cloud-optimized mirror of the world's first global long-term monthly VIIRS-like nighttime light (NTL) dataset. It features a unified spatial resolution of ~500 meters (15 arc-seconds) and includes ocean masking. It contains images in GeoTIFF format organized temporally, making it ideal for studies on socioeconomic development, urbanization processes, population estimation, and environmental impact.

The original data were generated using the deep super-resolution model NightNet and are natively hosted on the HKU DataHub.

Data Structure

The total size of the dataset is approximately 83.75 GB, structured into two main directories:

• —1992_2024_monthly_ocean_filtered/: Monthly nighttime light products (April 1992 - December 2024). Highly useful for seasonal fluctuation analysis and short-term economic dynamic monitoring.
• —1992_2024_annual_ocean_filtered/: Annual mean composites. Ideal for long-term and interannual trend analysis.

⚠️ Attribution and Citation (CC BY 4.0)

This dataset is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license. When using, transforming, or redistributing these data, you must provide appropriate credit to the original authors.

If you use this dataset in your research, please cite both the scientific article and the original dataset:

• —Scientific Article: Cheng, H., Geng, M., Li, X., Li, S., Zhao, M., Lin, C., Wang, J., Gong, P., & Zhou, Y. (2026). A temporally consistent global 500 m-resolution monthly VIIRS-like nighttime light dataset (1992–2024). Earth System Science Data, 18, 3449–3479. https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-3449-2026

• —Original Dataset: Cheng, H., Zhou, Y., & Li, X. (2026). The World's First Long-Term Global 500 m-Resolution Monthly VIIRS Nighttime Lights Dataset (1992–Present). HKU Data Hub [data set]. https://doi.org/10.25442/hku.31321315.v2