Abstract

This paper utilizes Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) nightlights to model damage caused by earthquakes, floods and typhoons in five South East Asian countries (Indonesia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam). For each type of hazard we examine the extent to which there is a difference in nightlight intensity between affected and non-affected cells based on (i) case studies of specific hazards; and (ii) fixed effect regression models akin to the double difference method to determine any effect that the different natural hazards might have had on the nightlight value. The VIIRS data has some shortcomings with regards to noise, seasonality and volatility that we try to correct for with new statistical methods. The results show little to no significance regardless of the methodology used. Possible explanations for the lack of significance could be underlying noise in the nightlight data and measurements or lack of measurements due to cloud cover. Overall, given the lack of consistency in the results, even though efforts were made to decrease volatility and remove noise, we conclude that researchers should be careful when analyzing natural hazard impacts with the help of VIIRS nightlights.

摘要

本文利用可见红外成像辐射计套件（VIIRS）夜灯来模拟东南亚五个国家（印度尼西亚，缅甸，菲律宾，泰国和越南）的地震，洪水和台风造成的破坏。对于每种类型的危害，我们根据以下情况检查受影响和未受影响的单元格之间夜光强度的差异：（i）特定危害的案例研究；（ii）类似于双重差异法的固定效应回归模型，以确定不同自然灾害可能对夜光值产生的任何影响。VIIRS数据在噪声，季节性和波动性方面存在一些缺陷，我们尝试使用新的统计方法进行校正。无论使用哪种方法，结果都几乎没有意义。缺乏重要性的可能解释可能是夜光数据和测量结果中存在潜在的噪声，也可能是由于云层覆盖导致测量值缺乏。总体而言，由于结果缺乏一致性，即使已努力降低挥发性并消除噪音，我们得出的结论是，研究人员在借助VIIRS夜灯分析自然灾害影响时应格外小心。