Lights in the Water

1
Lights in the Water

• Chris Elvidge and Edward H. Erwin, NOAA-NGDC
  (chris.elvidge_at_noaa.gov)
• Kimberly E. Baugh, Ara T. Howard, Benjamin T.
  Tuttle
• University of Colorado Cooperative Institute for
  Research in the Environmental Sciences (CIRES
• January 24, 2007

2
The DMSP Operational Linescan System (OLS)
Detects Lights Present At The Earths Surface

• Polar orbit with 3000 km swath yields nightly
  global coverage
• Coarse resolution 2.7 km ground sample
  distance
• NGDC makes annual cloud-free composites
• Images presented here are color composites in a
  equal area Mollweide projection made with
• 2006 red
• 2003 green
• 2000 blue

3
Korea and Japan
4
China
5
South China and Vietnam
6
ThailandandVietnam
7
ThailandandVietnam
8
Philippines
9
Luzon
10
Visayas
11
Palawan
12
Mindinao
13
Summary

• There are a number of areas in Asia where
  heavily-lit fishing boats are detected
• NGDC has a fifteen year time series which shows
  that the fishing boat activity is highly dynamic
  spatially and temporally
• The detected lights have not yet been intersected
  with aquaculture
• The use of near real time OLS data in fisheries
  management is being explored by Japan and Korea.