Regional and Mesoscale Meteorology Branch

Publications

A publication in Earth and Space Science details the unanticipated capability of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Tropospheric Emissions Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) instrument to detect and spatially resolve nighttime city lights at hyperspectral resolution in the ultraviolet (293-494 nm) and visible (538-741 nm) spectra. The paper demonstrates detections of artificial lights, moonlight, lightning, aurora, and nightglow, verified against Day/Night Band nighttime imagery.  The spectral information provides unique details on the properties of city lights (including different lighting “species” such as Light-Emitting Diodes (LED), high/low-pressure sodium, and metal halide), as well as characteristic emission lines for lightning and other emissions. The measurements also show a limited ability to detect clouds and surface features by way of reflected moonlight. The findings are notable as being the first known demonstration of a low-light detection capability from the geostationary platform. Given longstanding concerns about stray light contamination applicable to operating such a sensor in geostationary orbit, when the Sun or portions of the daylit Earth can serve as overwhelming contamination vis-a-vis the weak scene radiance, these results from TEMPO provide a critical assessment. Specifically, the fact that TEMPO exhibits a capability to detect city lights without any special provisions for stray light mitigation suggests that a future sensor that is indeed tailored to addressing these challenges would perform even better. These findings further motivate the pursuit of an operational capability that could one day (or, night?) provide forecasters with novel Day/Night Band equivalent low-light information at high temporal refresh rate and constant viewing geometry–revolutionizing our characterization and situational awareness of the nocturnal environment as a complement to conventional measurements. (POC: S. Miller, Steven.Miller@colostate.edu; D. Lindsey, Daniel.Lindsey@noaa.gov)

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Posted on: October 3, 2025