
Remote Sensing at Night
Technologies, Applications, and Perspectives
- 1st Edition - November 1, 2025
- Imprint: Elsevier
- Editor: Qingling Zhang
- Language: English
- Paperback ISBN:9 7 8 - 0 - 4 4 3 - 3 0 0 2 4 - 0
- eBook ISBN:9 7 8 - 0 - 4 4 3 - 3 0 0 2 5 - 7
Remote Sensing at Night: Technologies, Applications, and Perspectives covers the critical role of remote sensing in understanding Earth's nighttime environment, offering a holist… Read more

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Request a sales quoteRemote Sensing at Night: Technologies, Applications, and Perspectives covers the critical role of remote sensing in understanding Earth's nighttime environment, offering a holistic approach through a wide range of case studies, making the subject accessible to readers with diverse scientific backgrounds. It showcases recent advances in nighttime remote sensing by harnessing the capabilities of the latest Earth observation satellites for nightlight, thermal infrared, and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) technologies. The book details the advances of remote sensing technologies in nightscape monitoring for a range of practical and research applications, Earth observation datasets, and challenges. Remote Sensing at Night: Technologies, Applications, and Perspectives equips readers with multidisciplinary knowledge and practical solutions for nighttime monitoring, providing up-to-date global case studies and methodologies for researchers, graduate students, scientists, and academics in remote sensing, geospatial research, and environmental science.
- Written with Interdisciplinarity in ming and in easy to understand language, allowing a wide variety of career levels and subject specialties to understand and implement in their own research
- Approached with a dual orientation, both in innovative techniques and in specific features of local and global technologies, together with the required adaptations for the best-fitting technology
- Includes detailed case studies that are templated for ease of viewing, and guided methods for easy replication
Academic staff, researchers and university students in Geospatial Science & Technology
1. Introduction
SECTION 1: Remote Sensing Technologies at Night
2. Night-light remote sensing
a) Earlier observations
b) Space borne sensors
c) Airborne sensors
d) Ground based measurements
3. Thermal infrared remote sensing
a) Earlier observations
b) Space borne sensors
4. Synthetic Aperture Radar
a) Earlier observations
b) Space borne sensors
c) Airborne sensors
SECTION 2: Applications of Night Light Remote Sensing
5. Urban Applications
a) Mapping urbanization processes
b) Estimating GDP and mapping poverty
c) Monitoring urban disasters
d) Monitoring armed conflicts
e) Monitoring other nighttime human activities
6. Ecological Applications
a) Monitoring nighttime air pollution
b) Monitoring light pollution
c) Mapping fires, gas flares, and greenhouse gas emissions
7.Other Applications
a) Monitoring Lighting technology development
b) Monitoring fisheries
8. Moonlight remote sensing
SECTION 3: Applications of Nighttime Thermal Infrared Remote Sensing
9. Urban Applications
a) Monitoring Urban heat island
b) Characterizing Urban canopy structure
10. Ecological Applications
a) Monitoring Land surface/sea temperature
b) Detecting Volcanic
c) Detecting Wildfire
11. Other Applications
a) Monitoring Nightglow gravity wave
b) Detecting Sea fog
SECTION 4: Applications of Nighttime Synthetic Aperture Radar
11. Monitoring Polar snow/ice
12. Monitorin Rainfall/floods/landslide
13. Detecting Earthquakes
14. Detecting Tornadoes
15. Monitoring Marine pollution
SECTION 5: Concluding Remarks & Future Outlook
16. Conclusions
SECTION 1: Remote Sensing Technologies at Night
2. Night-light remote sensing
a) Earlier observations
b) Space borne sensors
c) Airborne sensors
d) Ground based measurements
3. Thermal infrared remote sensing
a) Earlier observations
b) Space borne sensors
4. Synthetic Aperture Radar
a) Earlier observations
b) Space borne sensors
c) Airborne sensors
SECTION 2: Applications of Night Light Remote Sensing
5. Urban Applications
a) Mapping urbanization processes
b) Estimating GDP and mapping poverty
c) Monitoring urban disasters
d) Monitoring armed conflicts
e) Monitoring other nighttime human activities
6. Ecological Applications
a) Monitoring nighttime air pollution
b) Monitoring light pollution
c) Mapping fires, gas flares, and greenhouse gas emissions
7.Other Applications
a) Monitoring Lighting technology development
b) Monitoring fisheries
8. Moonlight remote sensing
SECTION 3: Applications of Nighttime Thermal Infrared Remote Sensing
9. Urban Applications
a) Monitoring Urban heat island
b) Characterizing Urban canopy structure
10. Ecological Applications
a) Monitoring Land surface/sea temperature
b) Detecting Volcanic
c) Detecting Wildfire
11. Other Applications
a) Monitoring Nightglow gravity wave
b) Detecting Sea fog
SECTION 4: Applications of Nighttime Synthetic Aperture Radar
11. Monitoring Polar snow/ice
12. Monitorin Rainfall/floods/landslide
13. Detecting Earthquakes
14. Detecting Tornadoes
15. Monitoring Marine pollution
SECTION 5: Concluding Remarks & Future Outlook
16. Conclusions
- Edition: 1
- Published: November 1, 2025
- Imprint: Elsevier
- No. of pages: 395
- Language: English
- Paperback ISBN: 9780443300240
- eBook ISBN: 9780443300257
QZ
Qingling Zhang
Prof. Qingling Zhang, PhD from Sun Yat-sen University, is a full professor in Aerospace Engineering at Sun Yat-sen University. With a research background that includes positions at the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology and Yale University, Prof. Zhang has led numerous research projects funded by both US and Chinese government agencies. His academic contributions consist of 2 monographs and over 100 SCI papers, accumulating 15,497 citations and an impressive total impact factor of 57. Notably, his work includes a NASA-adopted MODIS albedo product gap-filling algorithm and the creation of VANUI and NDUI Urban Indices, widely utilized in urbanization and environmental studies. Prof. Zhang's involvement with NASA's Land Cover/Land Use Change Special Fund and his role as a reviewer for ten SCI journals underscore his prominence in the field. He has also contributed a chapter on "Nighttime Urban Remote Sensing" to the US Geological Survey's Remote Sensing Handbook. His achievements have earned him prestigious awards such as Sun Yat-sen University's "Hundred Talents Program" Academic Leader (2018), Chinese Academy of Sciences' "Hundred Talents Program" Overseas Academic Leading Talent (2015), and Shenzhen's "Overseas High-Level Talent Peacock Plan" award (2015).
Affiliations and expertise
Professor in Aerospace Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, China