Assessing the Impact of Night-Time Light as Proxy for Climate Change: A Geospatial Approach in Himachal Pradesh
摘要
The research work examines the spatiotemporal relationship between Night-Time Light (NTL) intensity and three climatic parameters, Temperature (TP), Precipitation (PR), and Relative Humidity (RH) in the state of Himachal Pradesh, over a timeline of 2002–2022. The climatic data analysis was conducted using 100 climatic station points based on a random sampling technique covering the whole study area, which was extracted from the NASA POWER Data Access Viewer (DAV) portal. The kriging interpolation technique was applied to generate continuous surface maps of yearly average data. Further, Getis-Ord Gi* Hotspot Analysis was performed to identify spatial clusters of high and low values for the parameters. To quantify the localised relationship between NTL and other climatic parameters, Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) was employed, allowing for spatial variation in regression coefficients. The work provides valuable insights into NTL's impact on local climatic patterns and possible ways of sustainable development and policy planning in a mountainous region like Himachal Pradesh.