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An enlightening look at city lights at night

Citizen scientists counted and classified light sources while walking through various urban environments, with the goal of understanding the types of light sources that illuminate our nights. Comparison of this survey with nighttime satellite imagery enables estimating the total number of light sources at the level of an entire city or country.

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Fig. 1: Relative frequency of lighting types.

References

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This is a summary of: Team Nachtlichter. Citizen science illuminates the nature of city lights. Nat. Cities https://doi.org/10.1038/s44284-025-00239-5 (2025).

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An enlightening look at city lights at night. Nat Cities 2, 475–476 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44284-025-00242-w

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