Free tools · NASA Black Marble, night light
Night light in The Msunduzi
Night light seen from space, 2025: brightness 6.1 nW/cm²/sr on average, 75% of the land lit. 6.6% brighter than 2024; 41% 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
- 6.1Average brightnessnW/cm²/sr, NASA’s yearly product
- 75%Of the land lit36% bright (5 nW/cm²/sr or more)
- 41% brighterAgainst 20122012: 4.3 nW/cm²/sr, 56% lit
2026 so far (10 months, from the monthly figures): brightness 6.9 nW/cm²/sr, 78% lit. NASA’s yearly figure for 2026 comes early next year.
Every year since 2012
Show the numbers
| When or what | Figure |
|---|---|
| 2012 | brightness 4.3 nW/cm²/sr, 56% lit |
| 2013 | brightness 4.2 nW/cm²/sr, 54% lit |
| 2014 | brightness 4.4 nW/cm²/sr, 56% lit |
| 2015 | brightness 4.4 nW/cm²/sr, 57% lit |
| 2016 | brightness 4.6 nW/cm²/sr, 59% lit |
| 2017 | brightness 4.5 nW/cm²/sr, 60% lit |
| 2018 | brightness 4.7 nW/cm²/sr, 61% lit |
| 2019 | brightness 4.8 nW/cm²/sr, 62% lit |
| 2020 | brightness 4.7 nW/cm²/sr, 64% lit |
| 2021 | brightness 4.7 nW/cm²/sr, 65% lit |
| 2022 | brightness 4.9 nW/cm²/sr, 69% lit |
| 2023 | brightness 5.1 nW/cm²/sr, 71% lit |
| 2024 | brightness 5.7 nW/cm²/sr, 75% lit |
| 2025 | brightness 6.1 nW/cm²/sr, 75% 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 | 6.3 | 6.3 | 6.7 | 7.6 | 7.2 | 7.2 | 7.3 | 6.5 | 6.8 | 7.4 | ||
| 2025 | 5.2 | 6.7 | 5.5 | 4.8 | 5.9 | 6.1 | 6.7 | 7.2 | 6.1 | 6.9 | 5.5 | 6.5 |
| 2024 | 4.7 | 6.3 | 5.1 | 5.8 | 5.2 | 5.4 | 6.3 | 7.7 | 5.9 | 6.2 | 5.4 | 5.9 |
| 2023 | 4.7 | 5.1 | 4.6 | 4.6 | 4.9 | 5.2 | 5.4 | 5.4 | 5.8 | 5.2 | 5.4 | 5.2 |
| 2022 | 4.8 | 3.9 | 4.7 | 5.1 | 4.5 | 5.1 | 5.4 | 6.0 | 5.3 | 5.2 | 4.3 | 3.8 |
| 2021 | 5.3 | 5.3 | 4.0 | 4.5 | 4.7 | 4.4 | 5.0 | 5.1 | 5.2 | 4.2 | 5.3 | 4.4 |
| 2020 | 4.2 | 4.3 | 4.7 | 5.0 | 4.5 | 4.6 | 5.0 | 4.8 | 4.6 | 5.6 | 4.6 | 4.8 |
| 2019 | 5.3 | 4.6 | 4.3 | 4.4 | 4.8 | 4.7 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 4.8 | 4.8 | 4.7 | 4.9 |
| 2018 | 5.2 | 3.9 | 4.9 | 4.1 | 4.5 | 5.2 | 5.0 | 4.8 | 4.7 | 4.4 | 5.2 | 4.0 |
| 2017 | 4.3 | 4.9 | 4.5 | 4.2 | 4.4 | 4.8 | 4.7 | 4.9 | 4.8 | 4.3 | 4.2 | 4.0 |
| 2016 | 4.6 | 4.1 | 4.7 | 4.6 | 4.4 | 4.8 | 5.3 | 4.8 | 4.6 | 3.9 | 3.8 | 4.9 |
| 2015 | 3.8 | 3.7 | 3.8 | 4.2 | 4.9 | 4.6 | 4.7 | 4.7 | 4.5 | 3.9 | 4.6 | 4.6 |
| 2014 | 3.9 | 3.9 | 4.9 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.3 | 4.7 | 4.8 | 4.8 | 5.0 | 5.1 | 3.5 |
| 2013 | 3.2 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.2 | 4.1 | 4.1 | 4.4 | 4.8 | 4.9 | 3.9 | 4.1 |
| 2012 | 6.1 | 4.3 | 5.0 | 4.8 | 4.4 | 4.3 | 4.2 | 4.5 | 4.1 | 4.6 | 3.2 | 3.7 |
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 | 6.1 | 75% | 36% | 0% |
| 2024 | 5.7 | 75% | 34% | 0% |
| 2023 | 5.1 | 71% | 31% | 0% |
| 2022 | 4.9 | 69% | 30% | 0% |
| 2021 | 4.7 | 65% | 30% | 0% |
| 2020 | 4.7 | 64% | 30% | 0% |
| 2019 | 4.8 | 62% | 30% | 0% |
| 2018 | 4.7 | 61% | 28% | 0% |
| 2017 | 4.5 | 60% | 27% | 0% |
| 2016 | 4.6 | 59% | 27% | 0% |
| 2015 | 4.4 | 57% | 26% | 0% |
| 2014 | 4.4 | 56% | 24% | 0% |
| 2013 | 4.2 | 54% | 23% | 0% |
| 2012 | 4.3 | 56% | 25% | 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 41 wards, 2025by ward number
- Ward 18.7, 100% lit
- Ward 26.8, 100% lit
- Ward 32.1, 77% lit
- Ward 44.1, 95% lit
- Ward 53.0, 88% lit
- Ward 63.2, 85% lit
- Ward 73.4, 88% lit
- Ward 82.5, 77% lit
- Ward 91.9, 62% lit
- Ward 1010.3, 100% lit
- Ward 113.4, 78% lit
- Ward 1212.5, 100% lit
- Ward 1316.1, 100% lit
- Ward 145.4, 93% lit
- Ward 1518.1, 100% lit
- Ward 1613.4, 100% lit
- Ward 178.0, 100% lit
- Ward 189.1, 100% lit
- Ward 1928.6, 100% lit
- Ward 2010.5, 100% lit
- Ward 2120.1, 100% lit
- Ward 2224.6, 100% lit
- Ward 2323.5, 100% lit
- Ward 243.9, 83% lit
- Ward 259.3, 100% lit
- Ward 267.9, 100% lit
- Ward 2731.2, 100% lit
- Ward 2812.0, 100% lit
- Ward 299.9, 100% lit
- Ward 308.4, 84% lit
- Ward 3125.1, 100% lit
- Ward 3218.5, 100% lit
- Ward 3329.5, 100% lit
- Ward 3415.0, 100% lit
- Ward 3518.5, 100% lit
- Ward 3621.1, 100% lit
- Ward 375.8, 82% lit
- Ward 383.6, 100% lit
- Ward 390.47, 14% lit
- Ward 405.1, 92% lit
- Ward 4116.8, 100% 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 The Msunduzi
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.