Funding by:European Space Agency New Earth Observation Mission Ideas (NEOMI)
Funding ID: 4000139244/22/NL
project executing: Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum (GFZ)
Funding period: 01.11.2022-30.11.2023
project partners: Cégep de Sherbrooke | Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum (GFZ) I Leibniz Institut für Gewässerökologie und Binnenfischerei | Stars4All | University of Twente ITC

The Night Watch project aims to design a concept for a future European satellite that could one day monitor nighttime lighting worldwide. The project outcome will be a Mission Description Document that covers the justification of the mission requirements from the high-level scientific objectives and societal benefits all the way to measurement requirements at product level 1b, i.e. radiances at the top of the atmosphere.

Within the project, researchers are examining applications ranging from the connectivity of dark landscapes for animal migration to detection of electricity supply and its reliability in informal settlements. They are also using high resolution aerial images and radiative transfer models to create simulated imagery under different detector configurations.