The Detectability of Nightside City Lights on Exoplanets

University of Arizona
20-May-2021
I estimate the detectability of nightside city lights on habitable, Earth-like, exoplanets around nearby stars using direct-imaging observations from the proposed LUVOIR and HabEx observatory architectures. I used data from the Soumi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite to determine the broadband surface flux from city lights at the top of Earth's atmosphere, and the spectra of commercially available high-power lamps to model the spectral energy distribution of the emitted flux from city lights.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2105.09990