Free tools · NASA Black Marble, night light
Night light in Mogale City
Night light seen from space, 2025: brightness 3.5 nW/cm²/sr on average, 44% of the land lit. 9.1% brighter than 2024; 17% brighter 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
- 3.5Average brightnessnW/cm²/sr, NASA’s yearly product
- 44%Of the land lit16% bright (5 nW/cm²/sr or more)
- 17% brighterAgainst 20122012: 3.0 nW/cm²/sr, 39% lit
2026 so far (10 months, from the monthly figures): brightness 4.0 nW/cm²/sr, 47% lit. NASA’s yearly figure for 2026 comes early next year.
Every year since 2012
Show the numbers
| When or what | Figure |
|---|---|
| 2012 | brightness 3.0 nW/cm²/sr, 39% lit |
| 2013 | brightness 3.0 nW/cm²/sr, 39% lit |
| 2014 | brightness 3.1 nW/cm²/sr, 39% lit |
| 2015 | brightness 3.3 nW/cm²/sr, 38% lit |
| 2016 | brightness 3.3 nW/cm²/sr, 37% lit |
| 2017 | brightness 3.5 nW/cm²/sr, 37% lit |
| 2018 | brightness 3.3 nW/cm²/sr, 37% lit |
| 2019 | brightness 3.3 nW/cm²/sr, 37% lit |
| 2020 | brightness 3.1 nW/cm²/sr, 37% lit |
| 2021 | brightness 3.1 nW/cm²/sr, 38% lit |
| 2022 | brightness 3.1 nW/cm²/sr, 41% lit |
| 2023 | brightness 3.0 nW/cm²/sr, 44% lit |
| 2024 | brightness 3.2 nW/cm²/sr, 42% lit |
| 2025 | brightness 3.5 nW/cm²/sr, 44% 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 | 3.7 | 3.8 | 4.4 | 4.0 | 3.7 | 3.8 | 4.3 | 4.2 | 4.1 | 4.2 | ||
| 2025 | 3.3 | 3.2 | 3.2 | 3.3 | 3.4 | 3.3 | 3.5 | 3.6 | 4.1 | 3.8 | 3.5 | 3.5 |
| 2024 | 2.9 | 2.6 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 2.9 | 2.8 | 3.5 | 3.8 | 3.5 | 3.7 | 3.4 | 3.3 |
| 2023 | 3.0 | 2.8 | 3.1 | 3.0 | 2.8 | 3.0 | 2.7 | 3.3 | 3.0 | 3.3 | 2.8 | 3.1 |
| 2022 | 3.4 | 3.0 | 3.5 | 2.7 | 2.9 | 2.9 | 3.1 | 3.5 | 3.0 | 3.4 | 3.2 | 3.1 |
| 2021 | 3.2 | 3.2 | 3.0 | 3.1 | 3.1 | 3.1 | 3.1 | 3.6 | 3.6 | 3.1 | 3.1 | 3.1 |
| 2020 | 3.0 | 3.5 | 3.2 | 3.2 | 3.0 | 2.9 | 3.2 | 3.3 | 3.2 | 3.4 | 3.1 | 3.8 |
| 2019 | 3.4 | 3.0 | 3.3 | 3.1 | 3.2 | 3.3 | 3.1 | 3.6 | 3.5 | 3.8 | 3.3 | 3.7 |
| 2018 | 3.4 | 3.4 | 3.2 | 3.3 | 3.2 | 3.3 | 3.3 | 3.5 | 3.5 | 3.4 | 3.6 | 3.0 |
| 2017 | 3.6 | 3.3 | 3.4 | 3.7 | 3.4 | 3.3 | 3.4 | 3.6 | 3.8 | 3.6 | 3.8 | 3.2 |
| 2016 | 3.1 | 3.1 | 3.2 | 3.4 | 3.2 | 3.1 | 3.1 | 3.3 | 3.5 | 3.6 | 4.0 | 3.7 |
| 2015 | 3.1 | 2.8 | 3.3 | 3.4 | 3.4 | 3.3 | 3.2 | 3.4 | 3.8 | 3.6 | 3.2 | 3.2 |
| 2014 | 3.1 | 2.5 | 2.8 | 3.1 | 3.0 | 2.9 | 3.0 | 3.3 | 3.4 | 3.8 | 3.4 | 3.9 |
| 2013 | 3.1 | 2.9 | 3.4 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 2.9 | 3.0 | 2.9 | 3.4 | 3.3 | 3.3 | 2.9 |
| 2012 | 3.4 | 3.1 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 3.1 | 2.8 | 2.9 | 3.1 | 3.2 | 3.0 | 3.2 | 3.0 |
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 | 3.5 | 44% | 16% | 0% |
| 2024 | 3.2 | 42% | 14% | 0% |
| 2023 | 3.0 | 44% | 14% | 0% |
| 2022 | 3.1 | 41% | 14% | 0% |
| 2021 | 3.1 | 38% | 15% | 0% |
| 2020 | 3.1 | 37% | 15% | 0% |
| 2019 | 3.3 | 37% | 15% | 0% |
| 2018 | 3.3 | 37% | 15% | 0% |
| 2017 | 3.5 | 37% | 15% | 0% |
| 2016 | 3.3 | 37% | 14% | 0% |
| 2015 | 3.3 | 38% | 15% | 0% |
| 2014 | 3.1 | 39% | 15% | 0% |
| 2013 | 3.0 | 39% | 15% | 0% |
| 2012 | 3.0 | 39% | 15% | 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 39 wards, 2025by ward number
- Ward 112.3, 100% lit
- Ward 212.2, 100% lit
- Ward 318.3, 100% lit
- Ward 444.1, 100% lit
- Ward 522.5, 100% lit
- Ward 67.9, 100% lit
- Ward 729.0, 100% lit
- Ward 843.1, 100% lit
- Ward 933.8, 100% lit
- Ward 1052.0, 100% lit
- Ward 1140.0, 100% lit
- Ward 1246.1, 100% lit
- Ward 1323.8, 100% lit
- Ward 1411.7, 100% lit
- Ward 1535.7, 100% lit
- Ward 1620.9, 100% lit
- Ward 1725.1, 100% lit
- Ward 1823.7, 100% lit
- Ward 1943.6, 100% lit
- Ward 2036.6, 100% lit
- Ward 2121.4, 100% lit
- Ward 2214.8, 100% lit
- Ward 237.8, 100% lit
- Ward 2431.5, 100% lit
- Ward 2525.7, 100% lit
- Ward 2610.8, 100% lit
- Ward 2711.4, 100% lit
- Ward 2819.2, 100% lit
- Ward 2913.7, 100% lit
- Ward 303.4, 98% lit
- Ward 310.89, 21% lit
- Ward 320.62, 13% lit
- Ward 332.5, 64% lit
- Ward 348.7, 100% lit
- Ward 3520.2, 100% lit
- Ward 3623.6, 100% lit
- Ward 3723.5, 100% lit
- Ward 386.7, 100% lit
- Ward 392.1, 48% 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 Mogale 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.