Twenty Years of India Lights

From 1993 to 2013 the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) took nightly pictures of India from space. The University of Michigan, in collaboration with the World Bank, has examined all 20 years of these satellite images to analyze how light output has changed across India during this time.

India Night Lights is a project from the University of Michigan and the World Bank to visualize and provide access to this night lights data. The India Night Lights project includes an interactive map which allows you to compare a night light view of India for any two different dates. This allows users to make a direct comparison of the amount of light measured in 600,000 different villages across the country for any two different dates during the twenty years of available data.

As well as the interactive map India Night Lights includes a number of visualizations of different 'Stories' which emerge from the data. At the moment these stories include a data visualization of how Diwali lights up India every year, the impact of electricity development projects in India and how electricity is administered in Uttar Pradesh.

The India Night Lights Project also includes an API which provides free access to India's night light data. This allows developers to access the light output at night of 600,000 villages across India for the twenty years from 1993 to 2013.