Discovering Hidden Offshore Lighting Structures with Multiyear Low-Light Imaging Satellite Data

The NASA/NOAA Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) day/night band (DNB) has a capability to detect lighting present at the earth’s surface. This low-light imaging capability was built to satisfy a requirement from meteorologists to detect clouds at night in the visible based on reflected moonlight. On land, human settlements are the dominant source of DNB detected surface lighting. Lights are also detected offshore primarily arising from fishing boats using lights to attract catch. In 2015, the Earth Observation Group developed the VIIRS Boat Detection (VBD) product and today several fishery agencies use VBD data to monitor fishing activity and compliance with closures. Recently EOG compiled the full record VBD detections as a 15 arc second global grid. The record spans 2012-2021 in Asia and 2017-2021 elsewhere. Upon reviewing the multiyear accumulation of VBD detections we were surprised to find a diversity of previously unseen lighting features [1]. These structures are not evident in VBD from single nights but are only revealed by accumulating the detections across a year or more. The additional features include lit platforms, transit lanes, and vessel anchorages associated with ports and passage straits. Another surprising finding is geopolitical divisions in the density of cumulative vessel detections. In this paper we provide a look into one of the densest areas of VBD detections in the world, from the Yellow Sea, East China Sea and Sea of Japan (East Sea).