Metadata: Identification_Information: Citation: Citation_Information: Originator: National Geophysical Data Center Publication_Date: 200301 Title: Nighttime Lights of North America Publication_Information: Publication_Place: Reston, VA Publisher: National Atlas of the United States Online_Linkage: Description: Abstract: This map layer is an image of nighttime lights for North America, including the Caribbean and most of Mexico. The data were collected in 1996 and 1997 as part of the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP). The data available through the National Atlas of the United States are in GeoTIFF format. This is a revised version of the May 2002 map layer, with a corrected shoreline for Greenland. Purpose: These data are intended for geographic display and analysis at the national level, and for large regional areas. The data should be displayed and analyzed at scales appropriate for 1:2,000,000-scale data. No responsibility is assumed by the National Atlas of the United States in the use of these data. Supplemental_Information: The Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) satellites collect visible and infrared cloud imagery as well as monitoring the atmospheric, oceanographic, hydrologic, cryospheric and near-Earth space environments. The DMSP program maintains a constellation of two, sun-synchronous, near-polar orbiting satellites. The orbital period is 101 minutes and inclination is 99 degrees. The atmospheric and oceanographic sensors record radiances at visible, infrared and microwave wavelengths. The solar-geophysical sensors measure ionospheric plasma fluxes, densities, temperatures and velocities. The OLS (Operational Linescan System) visible band (0.4-1.1 micrometers) is used to locate recurring nighttime lights. The thermal OLS band (10.5-12.5 micrometers) is used to screen for cloud free orbits. During the periods 16-21 March, 1996, 5-14 January, 1997, and 3-12 February, 1997, the gain on the OLS sensor was turned down to 24 from the normal 64 decibels. The result was an image in which urban centers do not saturate the signal. DMSP visible and infrared imagery of clouds covers a 3,000 km swath, thus each satellite provides global coverage of both daytime and nighttime conditions each day. The field view of the microwave imagers and sounders is only 1,500 km, thus approximately 3 days data are required for one instrument to provide global coverage at equatorial latitudes. The solar-geophysical instruments make in-situ measurements of ionospheric parameters, some of which vary very rapidly. This program is a joint effort with extensive collaboration between the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Office, Air Force Global Weather Central, the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program, the Office of the Federal Coordinator for Meteorological Services and Supporting Research, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Further information on the Defense Meterological Satellite Program can be found at . The associated world file is included as part of the GeoTIFF. The contents of the world file are: >769.4780 >0.000000 >0.000000 >-769.4780 >-6086744.0000 >4485901.0000 Time_Period_of_Content: Time_Period_Information: Range_of_Dates/Times: Beginning_Date: 19960316 Ending_Date: 19970212 Currentness_Reference: Ground condition Status: Progress: Complete Maintenance_and_Update_Frequency: As needed Spatial_Domain: Bounding_Coordinates: West_Bounding_Coordinate: 166.00 East_Bounding_Coordinate: -4.00 North_Bounding_Coordinate: 83.00 South_Bounding_Coordinate: 15.00 Keywords: Theme: Theme_Keyword_Thesaurus: ISO 19115 Topic Category Theme_Keyword: Imagery/Base Maps/Earth Cover Theme_Keyword: Society Theme: Theme_Keyword_Thesaurus: None Theme_Keyword: DMSP Theme_Keyword: Global Change Theme_Keyword: Meteorological Satellites Theme_Keyword: Satellite Imagery Theme_Keyword: Nighttime Lights Theme_Keyword: Population Theme_Keyword: Visible Theme_Keyword: City Lights Theme_Keyword: Radiance Theme_Keyword: Night lights Theme_Keyword: Urban lights Place: Place_Keyword_Thesaurus: None Place_Keyword: North America Place_Keyword: USA Place_Keyword: Alabama Place_Keyword: Alaska Place_Keyword: Arizona Place_Keyword: Arkansas Place_Keyword: California Place_Keyword: Colorado Place_Keyword: Connecticut Place_Keyword: Delaware Place_Keyword: District of Columbia Place_Keyword: Florida Place_Keyword: Georgia Place_Keyword: Hawaii Place_Keyword: Idaho Place_Keyword: Illinois Place_Keyword: Indiana Place_Keyword: Iowa Place_Keyword: Kansas Place_Keyword: Kentucky Place_Keyword: Louisiana Place_Keyword: Maine Place_Keyword: Maryland Place_Keyword: Massachusetts Place_Keyword: Michigan Place_Keyword: Minnesota Place_Keyword: Mississippi Place_Keyword: Missouri Place_Keyword: Montana Place_Keyword: Nebraska Place_Keyword: Nevada Place_Keyword: New Hampshire Place_Keyword: New Jersey Place_Keyword: New Mexico Place_Keyword: New York Place_Keyword: North Carolina Place_Keyword: North Dakota Place_Keyword: Ohio Place_Keyword: Oklahoma Place_Keyword: Oregon Place_Keyword: Pennsylvania Place_Keyword: Rhode Island Place_Keyword: South Carolina Place_Keyword: South Dakota Place_Keyword: Tennessee Place_Keyword: Texas Place_Keyword: Utah Place_Keyword: Vermont Place_Keyword: Virginia Place_Keyword: Washington Place_Keyword: West Virginia Place_Keyword: Wisconsin Place_Keyword: Wyoming Place_Keyword: Puerto Rico Place_Keyword: Virgin Islands Place_Keyword: Greenland Place_Keyword: Iceland Place_Keyword: United States Place_Keyword: Mexico Place_Keyword: Caribbean Access_Constraints: None Use_Constraints: None. Acknowledgment of the National Geophysical Data Center and (or) the National Atlas of the United States of America would be appreciated in products derived from these data. Point_of_Contact: Contact_Information: Contact_Organization_Primary: Contact_Organization: NOAA/NESDIS, National Geophysical Data Center Contact_Person: Dr. Christopher D. Elvidge Contact_Address: Address_Type: Mailing and physical address Address: E/GC2, 325 Broadway City: Boulder State_or_Province: CO Postal_Code: 80305 Country: USA Contact_Voice_Telephone: 303-497-6121 Contact_Facsimile_Telephone: 303-497-6513 Contact_Electronic_Mail_Address: Chris.Elvidge@noaa.gov Data_Quality_Information: Logical_Consistency_Report: No checks for logical consistency were performed on this map layer. Completeness_Report: This map layer contains nighttime lights information for all of North America excluding southern Mexico, and for the Caribbean, parts of Russia, and Greenland. Lineage: Source_Information: Source_Citation: Citation_Information: Originator: National Geophysical Data Center Publication_Date: 1997 Title: DMSP - OLS data Publication_Information: Publication_Place: Boulder, CO Publisher: NOAA/NESDIS, National Geophysical Data Center Type_of_Source_Media: magnetic tape Source_Time_Period_of_Content: Time_Period_Information: Range_of_Dates/Times: Beginning_Date: 19960316 Ending_Date: 19970212 Source_Currentness_Reference: Ground condition Source_Citation_Abbreviation: DMSPOLS Source_Contribution: Nighttime lights information Source_Information: Source_Citation: Citation_Information: Originator: National Atlas of the United States Publication_Date: 1999 Title: Shoreline file in Lambert Azimuthal Equal Area projection Publication_Information: Publication_Place: Reston, VA Publisher: National Atlas of the United States Type_of_Source_Media: internal file Source_Time_Period_of_Content: Time_Period_Information: Range_of_Dates/Times: Beginning_Date: 1972 Ending_Date: 1999 Source_Currentness_Reference: Ground condition Source_Citation_Abbreviation: shorelp020l Source_Contribution: Shoreline mask for area of coverage. Source_Information: Source_Citation: Citation_Information: Originator: National Geophysical Data Center Publication_Date: 200105 Title: Nighttime Lights of North America Publication_Information: Publication_Place: Reston, VA Publisher: National Atlas of the United States Type_of_Source_Media: online Source_Time_Period_of_Content: Time_Period_Information: Range_of_Dates/Times: Beginning_Date: 19960316 Ending_Date: 19970212 Source_Currentness_Reference: Ground condition Source_Citation_Abbreviation: LIGHTS_IMAGE2001 Source_Contribution: Nighttime Lights TIFF image. Source_Information: Source_Citation: Citation_Information: Originator: National Atlas of the United States Publication_Date: 200205 Title: North America Land/Water Mask Publication_Information: Publication_Place: Reston, VA Publisher: National Atlas of the United States Type_of_Source_Media: ftp site Source_Time_Period_of_Content: Time_Period_Information: Single_Date/Time: Calendar_Date: 200205 Source_Currentness_Reference: Publication date Source_Citation_Abbreviation: GRDMSKI Source_Contribution: Shoreline information Source_Information: Source_Citation: Citation_Information: Originator: National Geophysical Data Center Publication_Date: 200205 Title: Nighttime Lights of North America Publication_Information: Publication_Place: Reston, VA Publisher: National Atlas of the United States Type_of_Source_Media: online Source_Time_Period_of_Content: Time_Period_Information: Range_of_Dates/Times: Beginning_Date: 19960316 Ending_Date: 19970212 Source_Currentness_Reference: Ground condition Source_Citation_Abbreviation: LIGHTS_IMAGE200205 Source_Contribution: Nighttime Lights TIFF image. Source_Information: Source_Citation: Citation_Information: Originator: National Imagery and Mapping Agency Publication_Date: 1990 Title: World Vector Shoreline Publication_Information: Publication_Place: Bethesda, MD Publisher: National Imagery and Mapping Agency Online_Linkage: Type_of_Source_Media: Online Source_Time_Period_of_Content: Time_Period_Information: Single_Date/Time: Calendar_Date: 1990 Source_Currentness_Reference: Publication date Source_Citation_Abbreviation: WVS Source_Contribution: Shoreline information. Process_Step: Process_Description: During the periods from 16-21 March, 1996, 5-14 January, 1997, and 3- 12 February, 1997, the gain on the OLS sensor was turned down to 24 from the normal 64 decibels. The result was an image in which urban centers do not saturate the signal. The National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) received the complete DMSP data stream in the same form in which it was received at Air Force Weather Agency. NGDC processed the map layer to restore data lost during transmission and compute satellite positions. In addition, very near infrared (VNIR) emission sources and clouds for each of the suborbits were detected and geolocated, and the data were composited. Image time series analysis was used to distinguish lights produced by cities, towns, and industrial facilities from sensor noise and ephemeral lights arising from fires and lightning. The time series approach was required to ensure that each land area was covered with sufficient cloud free observations to determine the presence or absence of VNIR emission sources. The worldwide nighttime lights data file (DMSPOLS) was received in TIFF format. The file was converted to JPEG format and resampled in Adobe Photoshop to reduce the file size. The file was then converted to ESRI GRID format, the image was truncated using the shoreline mask (shorelp020l), and the value of the water areas was set to 255. The file was converted back to TIFF format. Source_Used_Citation_Abbreviation: DMSPOLS Source_Used_Citation_Abbreviation: shorelp020l Process_Date: 1999 Source_Produced_Citation_Abbreviation: LIGHTS_IMAGE2001 Process_Step: Process_Description: Coastlines in Canada, Mexico, Russia, and in the Caribbean were corrected. A GeoTIFF Revision 1.0 header was added and PackBits compression was applied to the image. Source_Used_Citation_Abbreviation: LIGHTS_IMAGE2001 Source_Used_Citation_Abbreviation: GRDMSKI Process_Date: 200205 Source_Produced_Citation_Abbreviation: LIGHTS_IMAGE200205 Process_Step: Process_Description: The coastline of Greenland was replaced by a new, corrected version derived from World Vector Shoreline (WVS). This image contains no thematic data for Greenland; the new data were inserted only to maintain consistency with other National Atlas data layers. Source_Used_Citation_Abbreviation: LIGHTS_IMAGE200205 Source_Used_Citation_Abbreviation: WVS Process_Date: 200212 Spatial_Data_Organization_Information: Direct_Spatial_Reference_Method: Raster Raster_Object_Information: Raster_Object_Type: Grid Cell Row_Count: 9448 Column_Count: 13471 Spatial_Reference_Information: Horizontal_Coordinate_System_Definition: Planar: Map_Projection: Map_Projection_Name: Lambert Azimuthal Equal Area Lambert_Azimuthal_Equal_Area: Longitude_of_Projection_Center: -100.00 Latitude_of_Projection_Center: 45.00 False_Easting: 0.0 False_Northing: 0.0 Planar_Coordinate_Information: Planar_Coordinate_Encoding_Method: Row and column Coordinate_Representation: Abscissa_Resolution: 769.478 Ordinate_Resolution: 769.478 Planar_Distance_Units: Meters Geodetic_Model: Horizontal_Datum_Name: None Ellipsoid_Name: Sphere Semi-major_Axis: 6370997.0 Denominator_of_Flattening_Ratio: 1.0 Entity_and_Attribute_Information: Detailed_Description: Entity_Type: Entity_Type_Label: Nighttime lights grid cell Entity_Type_Definition: Any of the data elements in the nighttime lights file. Entity_Type_Definition_Source: National Atlas of the United States Attribute: Attribute_Label: Nighttime lights grid cell value Attribute_Definition: The value is a measure of the intensity of nighttime lights in the grid cell. Light intensity is described by a range of values, where smaller values represent higher intensity, and larger values represent lower intensity. Attribute_Definition_Source: National Atlas of the United States Attribute_Domain_Values: Range_Domain: Range_Domain_Minimum: 0 Range_Domain_Maximum: 72 Attribute_Domain_Values: Enumerated_Domain: Enumerated_Domain_Value: 255 Enumerated_Domain_Value_Definition: Water Enumerated_Domain_Value_Definition_Source: National Atlas of the United States Distribution_Information: Distributor: Contact_Information: Contact_Organization_Primary: Contact_Organization: Earth Science Information Center, U.S. Geological Survey Contact_Address: Address_Type: Mailing address Address: 507 National Center City: Reston State_or_Province: VA Postal_Code: 20192 Contact_Voice_Telephone: 1-888-ASK-USGS (1-888-275-8747) Contact_Voice_Telephone: 703-648-5920 Contact_Instructions: In addition to the address above there are other ESIC offices throughout the country. A full list of these offices is at . Distribution_Liability: Although these data have been processed successfully on a computer system at the U.S. Geological Survey, no warranty expressed or implied is made by the U.S. Geological Survey regarding the utility of the data on any other system, nor shall the act of distribution constitute any such warranty. No responsibility is assumed by the U.S. Geological Survey in the use of these data. Standard_Order_Process: Digital_Form: Digital_Transfer_Information: Format_Name: TIFF Digital_Transfer_Option: Online_Option: Computer_Contact_Information: Network_Address: Network_Resource_Name: Fees: There is no charge for the map layer. Metadata_Reference_Information: Metadata_Date: 20050926 Metadata_Contact: Contact_Information: Contact_Person_Primary: Contact_Person: Peg Rawson Contact_Organization: National Atlas of the United States Contact_Address: Address_Type: Mailing address Address: 12201 Sunrise Valley Drive Address: MS-561 City: Reston State_or_Province: VA Postal_Code: 20192 Country: USA Contact_Voice_Telephone: 703-648-4183 Contact_Electronic_Mail_Address: atlasmail@usgs.gov Metadata_Standard_Name: FGDC Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata Metadata_Standard_Version: FGDC-STD-001-1998 Metadata_Time_Convention: Universal time Metadata_Security_Information: Metadata_Security_Classification_System: None Metadata_Security_Classification: Unclassified Metadata_Security_Handling_Description: None