Objectives of the service
Dark Vision delivers unparalleled insights to end users ranging from government, commercial organisations, NGO’s and international finance organisations. Derived primarily from the use of innovative space-based nighttime imagery, Dark Vision will provide an understanding of how artificial light at night impacts our planet and infrastructure.
A wide range of nighttime imagery data from Space-based sensors will be used to provide global coverage from a granular detail up to national scale mapping.
Users and their needs
Use case 1: distribution of electricity. Understanding where energy infrastructure is in place, how reliable it is and where the gaps exist are crucial for efficient planning and deployment of aid, project funding and resources in support of sustainable development goal (SDG) 7.
Use case 2: improving population distribution estimates. Spatial databases of human population have found use in disease burden estimation, epidemic modelling, resource allocation, disaster management, accessibility modelling, transport and city planning, poverty mapping and environmental impact assessment amongst others. The use of nighttime imagery can help to identify areas of countries that are lesser developed and where statistics may not include dwellings and therefore underestimate population figures.
Use case 3: mapping light pollution - utilising techniques developed within our company to process data from publicly available archives and strategic partners to deliver a snapshot and assessment of the light pollution present within a given environment whether urban, rural or coastal. National Governments and agencies responsible for light pollution and environmental monitoring seek to classify the origin of light pollution and understand its impacts.
Use case 4: Maritime Domain Awareness. Existing charts and datasets that support safe navigation at sea and particularly around coastlines and ports, rely heavily on ‘daytime’ data. Dark Vision can offer added depth to this picture and provide increased value and confidence to shipping operations at night.
Service/ system concept
The Dark Vision service will use a range of nighttime imagery sources to meet customer requirements. The layering and intercalibration of sensors will allow very high-resolution identification of nighttime features through to nationwide classification (e.g. artificial light pollution, categorised by land use). The service utilises open and commercial data sources and provides a greater understanding of the impact of light pollution on the environment and how this may be used as a proxy for human presence and activity.
Space Added Value
The service will incorporate data from several space missions. These will primarily include: ISS, SDGSAT-1, NOAA-20, and various commercial providers/sensors. The use of a combination of space assets that we propose meet the service demands by offering the temporal, spatial and spectral characteristics that cannot be achieved by other sensors. Space assets also offer advantages as they cause less pollution than the deployment of ground or aerial sensors and data can be collected without requiring people to be present in the locality, not to mention the added scalability and wider footprint.
Current Status
In progress – in the early stages of the project, currently validating detailed user requirements and preparing system specifications.
Prime Contractor(s)
