1 00:00:00,020 --> 00:00:04,030 [music] Narrator: 2 00:00:04,050 --> 00:00:08,040 When seen from the ground holiday lights give us cheer and help us celebrate the season. 3 00:00:08,060 --> 00:00:12,070 But from space, over time, they can tell us something about both culture 4 00:00:12,090 --> 00:00:16,150 and energy usage. Three years ago 5 00:00:16,170 --> 00:00:20,170 a new satellite called Suomi NPP began to give us brilliant new views of the Earth 6 00:00:20,190 --> 00:00:24,190 by day and by night. But as stunning as it is 7 00:00:24,210 --> 00:00:28,290 to see Earth all aglow, this is still just one composite image 8 00:00:28,310 --> 00:00:32,310 averaging observations over a period of months. Getting the 9 00:00:32,330 --> 00:00:36,370 big picture from space is always helpful, but we can learn even more 10 00:00:36,390 --> 00:00:40,400 seeing that picture change over time. 11 00:00:40,420 --> 00:00:44,470 A NASA-lead team of researchers has been pouring over the data from NPP 12 00:00:44,490 --> 00:00:48,490 and compensating for factors like the reflection of the moon and the effect 13 00:00:48,510 --> 00:00:52,510 terrain, clouds, aerosols, to produce a scientifically-valuable 14 00:00:52,530 --> 00:00:56,530 measuring Earth’s lights on a daily basis. 15 00:00:56,550 --> 00:01:00,560 The first thing they noticed in the data was the effect of holidays. 16 00:01:00,580 --> 00:01:04,580 Román:When we started looking at the data at night over the 17 00:01:04,600 --> 00:01:08,610 we were expecting to see a lot of stability in the night time lights. 18 00:01:08,630 --> 00:01:12,670 And we were really surprised to see this really vibrant increase 19 00:01:12,690 --> 00:01:16,700 in activity during the holidays particularly around 20 00:01:16,720 --> 00:01:20,730 areas in the suburbs.You have a lot of single-family homes 21 00:01:20,750 --> 00:01:24,740 with a lot of yard space to put in lights. 22 00:01:24,760 --> 00:01:28,780 Narrator:Comparing the six weeks between Thanksgiving and New Years to the rest of the year, 23 00:01:28,800 --> 00:01:32,870 the team noticed large areas where night lights were 20, 30, even 50 percent 24 00:01:32,890 --> 00:01:36,880 brighter over the holidays, as shown here in shades of green. 25 00:01:36,900 --> 00:01:40,900 Román:And so what we are seeing is this shift in location 26 00:01:40,920 --> 00:01:44,920 in activity where people are staying in their homes 27 00:01:44,940 --> 00:01:48,970 and they’re celebrating, or they’re traveling to the rural areas 28 00:01:48,990 --> 00:01:53,080 and they’re celebrating … and they’re turning on the lights 29 00:01:53,100 --> 00:01:57,110 . Whereas in the urban centers people are turning off the lights because they’re going off for the holidays. 30 00:01:57,130 --> 00:02:01,140 Narrator: 31 00:02:01,160 --> 00:02:05,210 Researchers actually first saw changes in holiday lighting patterns during Ramadan in the Middle East. 32 00:02:05,230 --> 00:02:09,290 Román:In contrast to the western holidays of Christmas and New Years, during Ramadan 33 00:02:09,310 --> 00:02:13,300 you don’t see a shift in activity in location. What you’re seeing is that communities 34 00:02:13,320 --> 00:02:17,330 are staying where they are, and they’re shifting their activities 35 00:02:17,350 --> 00:02:21,370 to the nighttime. 36 00:02:21,390 --> 00:02:25,390 Another thing that the … measurements are telling us is that it’s capturing cultural differences even 37 00:02:25,410 --> 00:02:29,410 within a single community like the Muslim community 38 00:02:29,430 --> 00:02:33,430 during the month of Ramadan. We’re seeing patterns in behavior 39 00:02:33,450 --> 00:02:37,510 that varies significantly from country to country, 40 00:02:37,530 --> 00:02:41,550 a smaller increase in nighttime lights in Turkey, large increase of nighttime lights in 41 00:02:41,570 --> 00:02:45,570 Saudi Arabia, no increase in nighttime lights in Israel 42 00:02:45,590 --> 00:02:49,610 because it’s not a predominantly Muslim country. So it’s a lot of diversity seen within the data. 43 00:02:49,630 --> 00:02:53,650 Narrator:Because the night light data has such good resolution, 44 00:02:53,670 --> 00:02:57,660 researchers from Yale University have even been looking at 45 00:02:57,680 --> 00:03:01,690 neighborhoods within cities, and correlating that data with known political and 46 00:03:01,710 --> 00:03:05,720 socio-economic factors. 47 00:03:05,740 --> 00:03:09,780 But from a NASA perspective, why is it important to concentrate on Earth’s lights from space? 48 00:03:09,800 --> 00:03:13,800 Román:A lot of our capability focuses on 49 00:03:13,820 --> 00:03:17,820 using satellites to get a global picture of where we are 50 00:03:17,840 --> 00:03:21,850 with respect to the environment and with respect to the day-to-day processes 51 00:03:21,870 --> 00:03:25,900 processes that drives the earth system. A big component of that is 52 00:03:25,920 --> 00:03:29,920 human activity and how they are driving the different processes 53 00:03:29,940 --> 00:03:33,960 that impact the earth like carbon emissions and 54 00:03:33,980 --> 00:03:38,010 like the heating patterns across cities. 55 00:03:38,030 --> 00:03:42,040 So by looking at the lights we can see changes in human behavior 56 00:03:42,060 --> 00:03:46,080 throughout the seasons, throughout the days, and we can use 57 00:03:46,100 --> 00:03:50,120 that information to then understand what are the 58 00:03:50,140 --> 00:03:54,150 norms that are driving the decisions behind 59 00:03:54,170 --> 00:03:58,190 energy. If you look at climate change 60 00:03:58,210 --> 00:04:02,240 research right now, we know that more than 70 percent of emissions 61 00:04:02,260 --> 00:04:06,270 are happening in cities. So NASA is putting a lot of emphasis 62 00:04:06,290 --> 00:04:10,310 on understanding cities and understanding the dynamics 63 00:04:10,330 --> 00:04:14,360 dynamics of how cities are interacting with the climate and our system as a whole. 64 00:04:14,380 --> 00:04:18,380 [music] 65 00:04:18,400 --> 00:04:28,482 [music]