Christopher Elvidge
Senior Research Associate
Director of Earth Observation Group

Elvidge pioneered the development of global satellite derived nighttime lights and led the production of a three-decade time series of global DMSP and VIIRS nighttime lights (1992-2023). These data products are widely used in a diverse range of fields, ranging from biology, urban sciences, economics, and light pollution. Elvidge was instrumental in establishing the DMSP digital archive at NOAA and led the media migration that rescued the digital records from aging tapes. In 2012, Elvidge conceived of and led the development of the VIIRS nightfire (VNF) product using a combination of near-infrared, shortwave infrared and mid-wave infrared channels. VNF is the only global fire product reporting temperature, source area, and radiant heat on 24-hour increments. The inclusion of SWIR bands results in an ability to construct global surveys of gas flaring sites and estimate flared gas volumes. Approximately 12,000 flaring sites are identified worldwide every year by Elvidge’s team. In 2014, Elvidge developed methods for discriminating flaming and smoldering combustion using nighttime Landsat data. This distinction is significant for modelling smoke production. Also in 2014, Elvidge developed a nighttime boat detection product for VIIRS. Today, the Earth Observation Group is one the largest independent producers of global VIIRS data products, ingesting and processing 150 GB of nighttime VIIRS data per day from each sensor with three product lines: lights, boats, fires and flares. Elvidge has been actively publishing since 1978 and has 230 published papers. According to Google Scholar, as of June 2024, Elvidge has 35,000 citations in scientific literature.

Education:

B.A. Botany, Southern Illinois University, 1975.
B.S. Geology, Southern Illinois University, 1977
M.S. Geology, Arizona State University, 1979
Ph.D. Applied Earth Sciences, Stanford University, 1985

Work History:

Post-doctoral research associate, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory 1985-1988.
Research Professor: Biological Sciences, Desert Research Institute, Reno 1988-1990.
Visiting Scientist: Global Change Research Program, U.S. EPA, Washington DC 1991-1993.
Visiting Scientist: NOAA National Geophysical Data Center, Boulder 1994-1998.
Senior Researcher: NOAA National Geophysical Data Center, Boulder 1998-2019.
Director of the Earth Observation Group, Colorado School of Mines 2019-present.
Adjunct Professor, RS-GIS Department, Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok 2023-present.

Key Publications:

Elvidge, Christopher D., Mikhail Zhizhin, Ashley Pipkin, Sharolyn Anderson, William S. Kowalik, and Morgan Bazilian. “Exploring the Hidden World of Lighting Flicker with a High-Speed Camera.” Atmosphere 15, no. 4 (2024): 438.

Elvidge, C.D.,  Zhizhin, M., Hsu, F-C, Sparks, T., Ghosh, T.  “Subpixel Analysis of  Primary and Secondary Infrared Emitters with Nighttime VIIRS Data.” Fire 4, no. 4 (2021): 83.  DOI https://doi.org/10.3390/fire4040083

Elvidge, Christopher D., Mikhail Zhizhin, Feng-Chi Hsu, and Kimberly E. Baugh. “VIIRS nightfire: Satellite pyrometry at night.” Remote Sensing 5, no. 9 (2013): 4423-4449.

Elvidge, Christopher D., Mikhail Zhizhin, Kimberly Baugh, Feng Chi Hsu, and Tilottama Ghosh. “Extending nighttime combustion source detection limits with short wavelength VIIRS data.” Remote Sensing 11, no. 4 (2019): 395.

Elvidge, Christopher D., Mikhail Zhizhin, Tamara Sparks, Tilottama Ghosh, Stephen Pon, Morgan Bazilian, Paul C. Sutton, and Steven D. Miller. “Global Satellite Monitoring of Exothermic Industrial Activity via Infrared Emissions.” Remote Sensing 15, no. 19 (2023): 4760.

Elvidge, Christopher D., Kimberly Baugh, Mikhail Zhizhin, Feng Chi Hsu, and Tilottama Ghosh. “VIIRS night-time lights.” International journal of remote sensing 38, no. 21 (2017): 5860-5879.

Elvidge, Christopher D., Mikhail Zhizhin, Tilottama Ghosh, Feng-Chi Hsu, and Jay Taneja. “Annual time series of global VIIRS nighttime lights derived from monthly averages: 2012 to 2019.” Remote Sensing 13, no. 5 (2021): 922.

Elvidge, Christopher D., Mikhail Zhizhin, Kimberly Baugh, and Feng-Chi Hsu. “Automatic boat identification system for VIIRS low light imaging data.” Remote sensing 7, no. 3 (2015): 3020-3036.

Elvidge, C.D., Ghosh, T., Chatterjee, N., Zhizhin, M., Sutton, P., Sparks, T., Bazilian, M., Pon. Y. “A comprehensive mapping of offshore lighting” In review at Frontiers of Marine Science (2024).

Elvidge, C.D.,  Zhizhin, M., Hsu, F-C,  Baugh,K., M. Khomarudin, M.R., Vetrita, Y., Sofan, S., Hilman, D. “Long-wave infrared identification of smoldering peat fires in Indonesia with nighttime Landsat data.” Environmental Research Letters 10, no. 6 (2015): 065002. DOI 10.1088/1748-9326/10/6/065002

Elvidge, C. D., Zhizhin, M., Baugh, K., Hsu, F-C “Identification of smoldering peatland fires in Indonesia via triple-phase temperature analysis of VIIRS nighttime data.” In Biomass burning in South and Southeast Asia, pp. 25-38. CRC Press, 2021.\\\