nightlightstats: an R package for analyzing nighttime light statistics
With Jakob Miethe. Available on GitHub.
This R package allows for calculating user-specified statistics on nighttime light satellite data. The package processes yearly DMSP (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program) data ranging from 1992 to 2013 and monthly VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) data beginning in April 2012. The package was built using the code of the paper “The Elusive Banker. Using Hurricanes to Uncover (Non-)Activity in Offshore Financial Centers” by Jakob Miethe but while that paper only focuses on small island economies, this package allows constructing nighttime light statistics for most geospatial units on the planet, which is hopefully useful for researchers in other areas.