Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

This site is currently in beta, and your feedback is helping shape its ongoing development.

2015 Urban Extents from VIIRS and MODIS for the Continental U.S. Using Machine Learning Methods

Published by SEDAC | National Aeronautics and Space Administration | Metadata Last Checked: August 04, 2025 | Last Modified: 2025-07-17
The 2015 Urban Extents from VIIRS and MODIS for the Continental U.S. Using Machine Learning Methods data set models urban settlements in the Continental United States (CONUS) as of 2015. When applied to the combination of daytime spectral and nighttime lights satellite data, the machine learning methods achieved high accuracy at an intermediate-resolution of 500 meters at large spatial scales. The input data for these models were two types of satellite imagery: Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Nighttime Light (NTL) data from the Day/Night Band (DNB), and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) corrected daytime Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). Although several machine learning methods were evaluated, including Random Forest (RF), Gradient Boosting Machine (GBM), Neural Network (NN), and the Ensemble of RF, GBM, and NN (ESB), the highest accuracy results were achieved with NN, and those results were used to delineate the urban extents in this data set.

Find Related Datasets

Click any tag below to search for similar datasets

data.gov

An official website of the GSA's Technology Transformation Services

Looking for U.S. government information and services?
Visit USA.gov