Free tools · NASA Black Marble, night light
Night light in Polokwane
Night light seen from space, 2025: brightness 1.5 nW/cm²/sr on average, 25% of the land lit. 5.0% brighter than 2024; 42% 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
- 1.5Average brightnessnW/cm²/sr, NASA’s yearly product
- 25%Of the land lit6.2% bright (5 nW/cm²/sr or more)
- 42% brighterAgainst 20122012: 1.0 nW/cm²/sr, 14% lit
2026 so far (10 months, from the monthly figures): brightness 1.6 nW/cm²/sr, 27% lit. NASA’s yearly figure for 2026 comes early next year.
Every year since 2012
Show the numbers
| When or what | Figure |
|---|---|
| 2012 | brightness 1.0 nW/cm²/sr, 14% lit |
| 2013 | brightness 1.0 nW/cm²/sr, 14% lit |
| 2014 | brightness 1.1 nW/cm²/sr, 15% lit |
| 2015 | brightness 1.1 nW/cm²/sr, 15% lit |
| 2016 | brightness 1.1 nW/cm²/sr, 15% lit |
| 2017 | brightness 1.1 nW/cm²/sr, 15% lit |
| 2018 | brightness 1.1 nW/cm²/sr, 16% lit |
| 2019 | brightness 1.2 nW/cm²/sr, 16% lit |
| 2020 | brightness 1.2 nW/cm²/sr, 17% lit |
| 2021 | brightness 1.2 nW/cm²/sr, 18% lit |
| 2022 | brightness 1.3 nW/cm²/sr, 21% lit |
| 2023 | brightness 1.2 nW/cm²/sr, 21% lit |
| 2024 | brightness 1.4 nW/cm²/sr, 24% lit |
| 2025 | brightness 1.5 nW/cm²/sr, 25% 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 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.7 | 1.6 | 1.4 | 1.7 | 1.8 | 1.6 | 1.8 | 1.8 | ||
| 2025 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.6 | 1.5 | 1.4 | 1.3 | 1.5 | 1.6 | 1.7 | 1.9 | 1.4 |
| 2024 | 1.4 | 1.2 | 1.4 | 1.6 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 1.4 | 1.7 | 1.5 | 1.8 | 1.6 | 1.6 |
| 2023 | 1.1 | 1.1 | 1.3 | 1.2 | 1.1 | 1.3 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 1.3 | 1.6 | 1.4 | 1.3 |
| 2022 | 1.4 | 1.3 | 1.5 | 1.2 | 1.4 | 1.3 | 1.2 | 1.4 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.2 |
| 2021 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 1.4 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.3 | 1.1 |
| 2020 | 1.3 | 1.2 | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 1.4 | 1.3 |
| 2019 | 1.1 | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.1 | 1.3 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 1.3 | 1.2 | 1.4 |
| 2018 | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 1.1 | 1.1 | 1.1 | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 1.1 |
| 2017 | 1.0 | 1.1 | 1.1 | 1.1 | 1.1 | 1.1 | 1.1 | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 1.1 | 1.1 |
| 2016 | 0.97 | 1.1 | 1.0 | 1.2 | 1.0 | 1.1 | 1.1 | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 1.1 | 1.0 |
| 2015 | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.1 | 1.1 | 1.1 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.1 | 1.0 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 1.1 |
| 2014 | 1.1 | 1.1 | 0.98 | 1.2 | 1.0 | 1.1 | 1.1 | 1.1 | 1.0 | 1.3 | 1.2 | 1.0 |
| 2013 | 0.94 | 0.96 | 0.97 | 0.99 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.1 | 1.0 | 1.1 | 1.3 | 1.1 | 1.1 |
| 2012 | 1.2 | 1.0 | 1.1 | 1.1 | 1.1 | 0.98 | 1.1 | 1.1 | 1.1 | 0.95 | 1.0 | 1.1 |
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 | 1.5 | 25% | 6.2% | 0% |
| 2024 | 1.4 | 24% | 5.7% | 0% |
| 2023 | 1.2 | 21% | 4.9% | 0% |
| 2022 | 1.3 | 21% | 5.5% | 0% |
| 2021 | 1.2 | 18% | 5.3% | 0% |
| 2020 | 1.2 | 17% | 5.0% | 0% |
| 2019 | 1.2 | 16% | 5.0% | 0% |
| 2018 | 1.1 | 16% | 4.7% | 0% |
| 2017 | 1.1 | 15% | 4.4% | 0% |
| 2016 | 1.1 | 15% | 4.2% | 0% |
| 2015 | 1.1 | 15% | 4.1% | 0% |
| 2014 | 1.1 | 15% | 4.0% | 0% |
| 2013 | 1.0 | 14% | 4.0% | 0% |
| 2012 | 1.0 | 14% | 3.9% | 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 45 wards, 2025by ward number
- Ward 10.13, 3.5% lit
- Ward 20.33, 10% lit
- Ward 30.54, 17% lit
- Ward 42.9, 52% lit
- Ward 51.3, 28% lit
- Ward 62.0, 29% lit
- Ward 71.9, 47% lit
- Ward 811.7, 100% lit
- Ward 91.1, 25% lit
- Ward 109.0, 100% lit
- Ward 119.1, 81% lit
- Ward 129.2, 69% lit
- Ward 1310.4, 92% lit
- Ward 1415.0, 100% lit
- Ward 150.39, 12% lit
- Ward 164.4, 77% lit
- Ward 1723.8, 100% lit
- Ward 182.3, 55% lit
- Ward 1917.7, 100% lit
- Ward 201.1, 25% lit
- Ward 2110.3, 70% lit
- Ward 2212.2, 89% lit
- Ward 239.6, 86% lit
- Ward 241.3, 31% lit
- Ward 2522.9, 100% lit
- Ward 2622.4, 100% lit
- Ward 2710.1, 97% lit
- Ward 282.5, 58% lit
- Ward 291.1, 35% lit
- Ward 300.95, 31% lit
- Ward 313.7, 51% lit
- Ward 322.0, 44% lit
- Ward 330.81, 22% lit
- Ward 342.3, 60% lit
- Ward 350.32, 9.9% lit
- Ward 361.7, 51% lit
- Ward 3717.5, 100% lit
- Ward 381.1, 32% lit
- Ward 3932.5, 100% lit
- Ward 400.82, 25% lit
- Ward 410.39, 13% lit
- Ward 420.52, 18% lit
- Ward 430.34, 11% lit
- Ward 440.50, 14% lit
- Ward 450.57, 18% 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 Polokwane
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.