Artificial lights brighten the Arctic as industry booms

As per the latest observations from NASA's Earth Observatory, the icy Arctic is rapidly brightening during the polar night, which is a result of increased industrial activity. Using satellite data, an international team of NASA researchers discovered that between 1992 and 2013, the Arctic was getting brighter by 5% annually, culminating in approximately 606,000 square kilometres that shifted from dark to illuminated.

- Only 15% of the lit-up areas of the Arctic during the study period contained human settlements like homes or apartment buildings, which tells us that most of the artificial light is due to industrial activities rather than urban or residential development - said Zhuosen Wang, a member of the research team and a scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, as quoted by Earth Observatory NASA. The experts are working on correcting such natural light sources to update the analysis of artificial light in the Arctic.

The industry mainly involves mining in the Arctic. According to Earth Observatory data, oil and gas extraction regions in northern Russia, the U.S. state of Alaska, and the European portion of the Arctic emitted the most artificial light from 1992 to 2013, while the Canadian Arctic remained largely dark. The most significant increases in the illuminated area were recorded in the Russian part of the Arctic (439,000 square kilometers) during the study period, particularly in Khanty-Mansiysk (114,000 square kilometers) and Yamalo-Nenets (108,000 square kilometers).

The entire Khanty-Mansiysk region in Russia is a vast, marshy area in the western Siberian Lowlands. This region is home to Samotlor, one of the largest oil fields in the world, which recorded the greatest expansion of nighttime lights during the study period. Although Khanty-Mansiysk experienced significant human activity expansion, there were also some decreases in the illuminated area. Researchers stated that the mining industry undergoes phases of expansion and recession cycles, so we see a reduction in artificial lighting in certain areas dependent on oil, gas, or mining without significant human settlement and economic diversification.

By 2013, the total illuminated area in the Russian Arctic's oil and gas extraction regions — including Khanty-Mansiysk, Yamalo-Nenets, and Nenets regions — was 340,000 square kilometers, almost equivalent to Germany's size. The total illuminated area of the European Arctic was 158,000 square kilometers, while the North American Arctic was 49,000 square kilometers. The research team also identified mines used for extracting other minerals, such as the Red Dog mine in remote Alaska, the world's second-largest source of zinc in 2018.