environment
Light pollution (night lights)
Why this matters
Light pollution is the glow of artificial light that spills into the night sky and washes out the stars. Satellites measure how bright the night is over a place, which tells us how much outdoor lighting from streetlights, signs, parking lots, and buildings is escaping upward. The most familiar form is "sky glow": the hazy dome of brightness over a city.
This matters for more than stargazing. Bright nights confuse wildlife: migrating birds veer off course and insects that pollinate plants die circling lights. For people, too much light at night can disrupt sleep and the body’s natural day-night rhythm.
Light pollution is also wasted money and energy; a large share of outdoor lighting shines uselessly into the sky.
About the Charlotte region
This explorer covers the 14-county, two-state Charlotte region (11 North Carolina and 3 South Carolina counties). Many of these indicators connect to a defining regional story: a landmark Harvard study ranked Charlotte last, 50th of the 50 largest U.S. metros for economic mobility (a child raised in the poorest fifth had about a 4.4% chance of reaching the top fifth), a finding that launched the region's Leading on Opportunity agenda. Updated 2024 data show Charlotte has since climbed to 38th.
Opportunity here is also unevenly mapped. An affluent “wedge” fanning southeast from uptown holds a large majority of the city's wealth on under a quarter of its land, while a ”crescent” to the north, west, and east carries higher poverty, a legacy of redlining, exclusionary zoning, and highway routing that recurs across the race, income, health, tree-canopy, and school maps in this tool. No single indicator is good or bad on its own; together they describe how the region sorted opportunity.
Companion resources: Charlotte-Mecklenburg Quality of Life Explorer · UNC Charlotte Urban Institute · Opportunity Atlas · Methods & sources
Learn more
- National Park Service — Light Pollution nps.gov
Explains sky glow, glare, and light trespass and why a brightening sky harms ecosystems.
- NASA Earthdata — Nighttime Lights earthdata.nasa.gov
How VIIRS satellites measure artificial light at night from space.
About the data
Area-weighted mean nighttime-light radiance (nW/cm²/sr) per tract from the Earth Observation Group's VIIRS annual composites (2014–2024). Higher values indicate more artificial light at night (light pollution). A satellite measurement, not a survey, so it carries no sampling margin of error.
Source: Earth Observation Group, VIIRS Nighttime Lights (VNL V2).