Earth is getting brighter at night, artificial lighting rise seen from space

Daily satellite observations have revealed that Earth’s nights are growing brighter overall, but not in a simple or uniform way. A new global study shows that artificial lighting increased by 16% between 2014 and 2022, with dramatic regional differences shaped by economic growth, energy access, conflict, and environmental policy.
The findings, published in Nature, challenge the long-held belief that nighttime brightness steadily rises in line with population and economic expansion. Instead, researchers describe a “highly volatile” nightscape that is constantly shifting.
Using more than a million daily images captured by a US government Earth-observation satellite and processed by NASA, scientists tracked fine-scale changes in lighting across the globe.
Unlike earlier studies that relied on monthly or yearly composites, this approach revealed short-term fluctuations and regional patterns in unprecedented detail.
The most striking increases were seen in emerging economies, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia.
Countries such as Somalia, Burundi, and Cambodia recorded the fastest growth, driven largely by urbanisation, infrastructure development, and expanding electricity access.
“This isn’t just urbanisation, it’s a massive expansion of energy access,” said lead author Zhe Zhu of the University of Connecticut. “Entire regions are transitioning from near-total darkness to being part of the global electric network.”
In contrast, sharp declines in lighting were observed in conflict-affected nations including Ukraine, Yemen, Afghanistan, and Lebanon.
In Ukraine, a sustained drop in brightness coincided with the escalation of war in February 2022. Economic crises also contributed to dimming in countries like Haiti and Venezuela.
Europe stood out as a region where dimming was largely intentional. The continent recorded a 4% decrease in nighttime light, driven by energy-efficient LED adoption, strict environmental regulations, and efforts to reduce light pollution.