Multiple Angle Observations Would Benefit Visible Band Remote Sensing Using Night Lights
Christopher C. M. Kyba, Martin Aubé, Salvador Bará, Andrea Bertolo, Constantinos A. Bouroussis, Stefano Cavazzani, B. R. Espey, Fabio Falchi, G. Gyuk, Andreas Jechow, Miroslav Kocifaj, Z. Kolláth, Héctor Antonio Solano Lamphar, Noam Levin, Shengjie Liu, Steven D. Miller, S. Ortolani, C. S. J. Pun, Salvador J. Ribas, Thomas Ruhtz, Alejandro Sánchez de Miguel, Mathias Schneider, Ranjay Shrestha, Alexandre Simoneau, Chu Wing So, Tobias Storch, Kai Pong Tong, Milagros Tuñón, Diane Turnshek, Ken Walczak, Jun Wang, Zhuosen Wang, Jianglong Zhang
Abstract
Abstract The spatial and angular emission patterns of artificial and natural light emitted, scattered, and reflected from the Earth at night are far more complex than those for scattered and reflected solar radiation during daytime. In this commentary, we use examples to show that there is additional information contained in the angular distribution of emitted light. We argue that this information could be used to improve existing remote sensing retrievals based on night lights, and in some cases could make entirely new remote sensing analyses possible. This work will be challenging, so we hope this article will encourage researchers and funding agencies to pursue further study of how multi‐angle views can be analyzed or acquired.