Free tools · NASA Black Marble, night light
Night light in Buffalo City
Night light seen from space, 2025: brightness 1.7 nW/cm²/sr on average, 21% of the land lit. 8.2% brighter than 2024; 0.6% darker than 2012.
Night light is the light a satellite sees from space at about 1:30 in the morning: street lights, buildings, mines, factories, harbours and fires. NASA takes out moonlight, haze and stray light, leaves out cloudy nights and sets faint glow to zero. Brightness is the light given off, in nanowatts per square centimetre per steradian (nW/cm²/sr), averaged over the place; “lit” is the share of the land giving off 1 or more, twice the faint glow NASA treats as noise.
What it is not: it cannot tell the grid from solar or a generator, who pays for the light, how many people live there or how well off they are. A load-shedding month mixes dark nights with lit ones, fires and flares can light a month up, and a cloudy month rests on fewer nights.
2025
- 1.7Average brightnessnW/cm²/sr, NASA’s yearly product
- 21%Of the land lit8.7% bright (5 nW/cm²/sr or more)
- 0.6% darkerAgainst 20122012: 1.7 nW/cm²/sr, 15% lit
2026 so far (10 months, from the monthly figures): brightness 1.9 nW/cm²/sr, 23% lit. NASA’s yearly figure for 2026 comes early next year.
Every year since 2012
Show the numbers
| When or what | Figure |
|---|---|
| 2012 | brightness 1.7 nW/cm²/sr, 15% lit |
| 2013 | brightness 1.7 nW/cm²/sr, 15% lit |
| 2014 | brightness 1.7 nW/cm²/sr, 15% lit |
| 2015 | brightness 1.6 nW/cm²/sr, 15% lit |
| 2016 | brightness 1.5 nW/cm²/sr, 14% lit |
| 2017 | brightness 1.5 nW/cm²/sr, 15% lit |
| 2018 | brightness 1.5 nW/cm²/sr, 15% lit |
| 2019 | brightness 1.5 nW/cm²/sr, 15% lit |
| 2020 | brightness 1.3 nW/cm²/sr, 15% lit |
| 2021 | brightness 1.4 nW/cm²/sr, 15% lit |
| 2022 | brightness 1.4 nW/cm²/sr, 17% lit |
| 2023 | brightness 1.4 nW/cm²/sr, 17% lit |
| 2024 | brightness 1.6 nW/cm²/sr, 20% lit |
| 2025 | brightness 1.7 nW/cm²/sr, 21% lit |
Month by month
Every month since January 2012brightness, nW/cm²/sr
| Year | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1.9 | 1.9 | 2.1 | 2.0 | 1.9 | 2.0 | 2.1 | 1.8 | 1.7 | 2.1 | ||
| 2025 | 1.6 | 1.6 | 1.6 | 1.5 | 1.7 | 1.6 | 1.8 | 1.8 | 1.8 | 1.9 | 1.7 | 2.0 |
| 2024 | 1.4 | 1.4 | 1.5 | 1.4 | 1.5 | 1.3 | 1.6 | 2.0 | 1.7 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 1.7 |
| 2023 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.3 | 1.3 | 1.2 | 1.4 | 1.4 | 1.5 | 1.4 | 1.3 | 1.5 | 1.5 |
| 2022 | 1.4 | 1.4 | 1.2 | 1.4 | 1.4 | 1.4 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.4 | 1.4 | 1.5 | 1.7 |
| 2021 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.4 | 1.4 | 1.4 | 1.4 | 1.4 | 1.4 | 1.5 | 1.4 | 1.3 | 1.3 |
| 2020 | 1.3 | 1.3 | 1.5 | 1.3 | 1.3 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.4 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.4 | 1.2 |
| 2019 | 1.5 | 1.4 | 1.4 | 1.4 | 1.4 | 1.4 | 1.4 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.4 | 1.6 | 1.6 |
| 2018 | 1.4 | 1.4 | 1.6 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.6 | 1.4 | 1.5 | 1.6 | 1.6 | 1.6 |
| 2017 | 1.6 | 1.8 | 1.6 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.6 | 1.6 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.4 | 1.4 | 1.4 |
| 2016 | 1.7 | 1.4 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.6 | 1.6 | 1.6 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 |
| 2015 | 1.5 | 1.6 | 1.7 | 1.8 | 1.6 | 1.6 | 1.4 | 1.6 | 1.6 | 1.7 | 1.5 | 1.4 |
| 2014 | 1.7 | 1.6 | 1.8 | 1.8 | 1.7 | 1.8 | 1.9 | 1.7 | 1.8 | 1.7 | 1.7 | 1.6 |
| 2013 | 1.7 | 1.7 | 1.8 | 1.6 | 1.8 | 1.8 | 1.8 | 1.8 | 1.9 | 1.9 | 1.7 | 1.7 |
| 2012 | 1.9 | 1.7 | 1.7 | 1.9 | 1.8 | 1.7 | 1.8 | 1.7 | 1.7 | 1.7 | 1.7 | 1.7 |
Hover or tap a month for its lit share, how much NASA filled from earlier months and how many clear nights it rests on. Every figure is also in the API.
Every year
| Year | Brightness (nW/cm²/sr) | Lit | Bright | Filled |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 1.7 | 21% | 8.7% | 0% |
| 2024 | 1.6 | 20% | 8.3% | 0% |
| 2023 | 1.4 | 17% | 7.7% | 0% |
| 2022 | 1.4 | 17% | 7.9% | 0% |
| 2021 | 1.4 | 15% | 8.0% | 0% |
| 2020 | 1.3 | 15% | 7.9% | 0% |
| 2019 | 1.5 | 15% | 8.1% | 0% |
| 2018 | 1.5 | 15% | 8.1% | 0% |
| 2017 | 1.5 | 15% | 8.1% | 0% |
| 2016 | 1.5 | 14% | 8.0% | 0% |
| 2015 | 1.6 | 15% | 8.0% | 0% |
| 2014 | 1.7 | 15% | 8.3% | 0% |
| 2013 | 1.7 | 15% | 8.4% | 0% |
| 2012 | 1.7 | 15% | 8.5% | 0% |
Lit: the share of the land giving off 1 nW/cm²/sr or more. Bright: 5 or more. Filled: the share NASA filled from earlier months for want of a clear night.
Its 50 wards, 2025by ward number
- Ward 125.2, 100% lit
- Ward 218.1, 100% lit
- Ward 336.8, 100% lit
- Ward 415.8, 100% lit
- Ward 510.2, 95% lit
- Ward 618.4, 100% lit
- Ward 716.9, 100% lit
- Ward 814.1, 100% lit
- Ward 920.7, 100% lit
- Ward 1012.0, 100% lit
- Ward 119.0, 98% lit
- Ward 123.6, 79% lit
- Ward 138.1, 89% lit
- Ward 1414.9, 100% lit
- Ward 153.3, 57% lit
- Ward 165.6, 89% lit
- Ward 177.6, 92% lit
- Ward 1819.7, 100% lit
- Ward 1926.1, 100% lit
- Ward 204.9, 66% lit
- Ward 2110.2, 99% lit
- Ward 220.74, 21% lit
- Ward 234.9, 82% lit
- Ward 241.0, 21% lit
- Ward 253.1, 74% lit
- Ward 260.27, 5.8% lit
- Ward 277.1, 99% lit
- Ward 2818.3, 100% lit
- Ward 298.1, 99% lit
- Ward 3014.3, 100% lit
- Ward 310.46, 8.3% lit
- Ward 320.07, 1.0% lit
- Ward 330.08, 1.9% lit
- Ward 348.0, 100% lit
- Ward 350.51, 17% lit
- Ward 360.78, 20% lit
- Ward 375.2, 61% lit
- Ward 380.19, 4.5% lit
- Ward 391.7, 32% lit
- Ward 400.22, 5.1% lit
- Ward 4111.4, 100% lit
- Ward 423.2, 75% lit
- Ward 431.7, 27% lit
- Ward 444.6, 81% lit
- Ward 450.63, 14% lit
- Ward 469.9, 98% lit
- Ward 4742.9, 100% lit
- Ward 4812.4, 100% lit
- Ward 491.2, 37% lit
- Ward 500.38, 9.0% lit
Listed by number, not ranked: night light shows where light is, not how people live. Each ward’s page sets it against its own past and its municipality.
Every municipality · Everything we hold for Buffalo City
Source
NASA Black Marble night lights, VNP46A3 (monthly) and VNP46A4 (yearly), collection 2, from NASA’s LAADS DAAC (doi:10.5067/VIIRS/VNP46A3.002 and doi:10.5067/VIIRS/VNP46A4.002). The product’s page.
What we changed: we added up NASA’s light over each 2026 ward (each pixel, about 460 m across, split in four and given to the ward holding each quarter) and added the wards up to municipalities, districts and provinces.
The satellite (Suomi NPP) passes at about 1:30 in the morning. NASA’s monthly figure is the mean of the month’s clear nights; a pixel with no clear night is filled from earlier months, and that share is shown. The yearly figure is NASA’s own mean of the year’s clear nights, so it is close to, not exactly, the mean of the twelve months.
Dataset: night light by ward, release 2026-11-13.