WEBVTT FILE 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]