Evaluating LJ1-01 nighttime light data for economic analysis at China’s county level

This paper presents two contributions to the application of night-time light (NTL) data in socioeconomic research. Using 2018 data from 992 Chinese counties, we first demonstrate that high-resolution LJ1-01 imagery exhibits stronger correlations with ground data than the widely used Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership – Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (NPP-VIIRS). Second, we show that LJ1-01 consistently outperforms NPP-VIIRS in both Random Forest and Geographically Weighted Regression models, which capture nonlinear and spatially nonstationary relationships between NTL and socioeconomic activity. These findings distinguish LJ1-01 as a superior data source for fine-scale monitoring and provide methodological guidance for integrating remote sensing into economic analysis and policymaking