Free tools · NASA Black Marble, night light
Night light in Ward 28, eThekwini
Night light seen from space, 2025: brightness 83.1 nW/cm²/sr on average, 100% of the land lit. 17% brighter than 2024; 20% 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
- 83.1Average brightnessnW/cm²/sr, NASA’s yearly product
- 100%Of the land lit100% bright (5 nW/cm²/sr or more)
- 20% darkerAgainst 20122012: 104 nW/cm²/sr, 100% lit
- 10.7Its municipalityeThekwini in 2025, 86% lit
2026 so far (10 months, from the monthly figures): brightness 86.0 nW/cm²/sr, 100% lit. NASA’s yearly figure for 2026 comes early next year.
Every year since 2012
Show the numbers
| When or what | Figure |
|---|---|
| 2012 | brightness 104 nW/cm²/sr, 100% lit |
| 2013 | brightness 107 nW/cm²/sr, 100% lit |
| 2014 | brightness 104 nW/cm²/sr, 100% lit |
| 2015 | brightness 96.9 nW/cm²/sr, 100% lit |
| 2016 | brightness 94.7 nW/cm²/sr, 100% lit |
| 2017 | brightness 95.7 nW/cm²/sr, 100% lit |
| 2018 | brightness 90.8 nW/cm²/sr, 100% lit |
| 2019 | brightness 80.1 nW/cm²/sr, 100% lit |
| 2020 | brightness 78.4 nW/cm²/sr, 100% lit |
| 2021 | brightness 73.9 nW/cm²/sr, 100% lit |
| 2022 | brightness 63.9 nW/cm²/sr, 100% lit |
| 2023 | brightness 62.8 nW/cm²/sr, 100% lit |
| 2024 | brightness 71.2 nW/cm²/sr, 100% lit |
| 2025 | brightness 83.1 nW/cm²/sr, 100% 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 | 94.0 | 81.4 | 88.8 | 84.9 | 89.5 | 83.2 | 86.9 | 86.1 | 77.3 | 88.3 | ||
| 2025 | 74.3 | 68.1 | 74.5 | 78.9 | 83.8 | 86.9 | 87.3 | 86.0 | 72.9 | 88.5 | 80.5 | 93.0 |
| 2024 | 69.5 | 64.7 | 63.3 | 65.8 | 70.1 | 74.0 | 74.0 | 78.6 | 72.8 | 74.7 | 76.1 | 68.4 |
| 2023 | 65.2 | 64.9 | 53.2 | 60.3 | 64.1 | 65.2 | 70.0 | 66.5 | 55.2 | 62.3 | 61.8 | 63.8 |
| 2022 | 67.8 | 53.7 | 65.8 | 61.2 | 62.7 | 66.4 | 68.5 | 67.9 | 57.6 | 53.2 | 68.9 | 61.2 |
| 2021 | 72.3 | 77.1 | 71.4 | 76.7 | 81.0 | 74.0 | 76.9 | 72.1 | 69.1 | 68.8 | 65.7 | 62.4 |
| 2020 | 64.6 | 77.2 | 82.5 | 78.1 | 81.2 | 82.1 | 81.1 | 78.5 | 71.2 | 74.3 | 78.7 | 75.0 |
| 2019 | 75.4 | 82.6 | 79.5 | 77.9 | 79.6 | 84.8 | 81.6 | 75.7 | 76.7 | 79.2 | 80.7 | 72.8 |
| 2018 | 95.3 | 93.2 | 85.3 | 93.9 | 94.0 | 93.7 | 93.2 | 87.0 | 85.0 | 88.4 | 90.3 | 84.6 |
| 2017 | 94.6 | 99.5 | 96.8 | 97.7 | 98.0 | 99.4 | 94.7 | 92.2 | 84.2 | 98.1 | 90.7 | 102 |
| 2016 | 81.9 | 91.3 | 96.5 | 92.0 | 98.5 | 96.8 | 98.1 | 97.7 | 80.0 | 89.5 | 88.0 | 90.1 |
| 2015 | 99.1 | 106 | 106 | 98.9 | 101 | 99.4 | 99.1 | 90.0 | 82.8 | 88.7 | 102 | 86.7 |
| 2014 | 111 | 111 | 106 | 105 | 100 | 110 | 106 | 99.0 | 103 | 94.2 | 111 | 98.9 |
| 2013 | 97.7 | 96.9 | 102 | 111 | 112 | 111 | 112 | 107 | 99.0 | 102 | 114 | 108 |
| 2012 | 106 | 94.7 | 96.3 | 106 | 105 | 110 | 108 | 97.9 | 109 | 76.4 | 98.1 | 104 |
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 | 83.1 | 100% | 100% | 0% |
| 2024 | 71.2 | 100% | 100% | 0% |
| 2023 | 62.8 | 100% | 100% | 0% |
| 2022 | 63.9 | 100% | 100% | 0% |
| 2021 | 73.9 | 100% | 100% | 0% |
| 2020 | 78.4 | 100% | 100% | 0% |
| 2019 | 80.1 | 100% | 100% | 0% |
| 2018 | 90.8 | 100% | 100% | 0% |
| 2017 | 95.7 | 100% | 100% | 0% |
| 2016 | 94.7 | 100% | 100% | 0% |
| 2015 | 96.9 | 100% | 100% | 0% |
| 2014 | 104 | 100% | 100% | 0% |
| 2013 | 107 | 100% | 100% | 0% |
| 2012 | 104 | 100% | 100% | 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.
eThekwini and its wards · Every municipality
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.