Night earth observation for Smart Cities

Abstract

The subject of this article is analysis of the methods of Earth Observing in Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) and Smart Cities and technical characteristics of satellite data. The first part of this article presents the analysis of satellite images of the Earth's surface illumination in villages, towns and cities, selected parts of transport infrastructure, which allows monitoring the extent, intensity and quality of illumination in larger areas and then evaluating the impact of illumination on the traffic safety. The advanced processing of satellite images shall allow identification of problem areas and monitoring poor illumination within larger areas. The second part of the article analyzes possibilities of application of methods of Earth Observing by using acquired satellite information combined with ground-based data sources. Processing of all available information and data available shall allow designing of new applications in the framework of the concept of Smart Cities.