Cities at Night is a citizen science project that aims to create a map, similar to Google maps, of the earth at night using color pictures with 10 times more resolution than it was available for the pulic so far.
With this database of almost half a million photographs we work on organizing, cataloging, georeferencing and calibrate for science research purposes.
Currently, night satellite images are a powerful source of information in different fields of study:
- Light Pollution
- Ecology
- Human Health
- Population economics
See the results obtained thanks to Cities At Night:
Lost at Night App
Do you want to do Citizen Science?
Citizen science is a tool for scientific and educational research. Once nocturnal images are identified we need to know where are the located. With this application you can help us to know the City. Lost at Night is our current working app.
Help the project while recognizing cities from various beautiful pictures taken from space!
Transparency
Cities at Night is a collaborative project, with access to all data. If you have any questions contact us.
What do we do with the data?
We publish the data openly, always been sure of not collecting any personal data of the volunteers. We use the data for scientific research on light pollution.
Where is the project data stored?
The data is stored at the app while we are still collecting it. Later, is uploaded to our Zenodo community. The data we have of the app Lost At Night currently working is here.
Can I participate in the project?
We need volunteers to help us classify, identify the image locations and then in the georeferencing process. All work will be recognized as co-author (in the case of paper and the degree of involvement) or as acknowledgment.
Do you want to receive news about our project? Subscribe to our newsletter!
Collaborators
Project Lider
Alejandro Sánchez de Miguel. Cities at Night PI; postdoc at U Complutense Madrid, UNA4Career Project; Associate University of Exeter; IAA advisor.

Pamela Cepeda, Project Manager
Lucía García, Outreach and communication manager
Do you want to join and support the project in some way? You can do it!
Cities at Night has a network of collaborators between companies and institutions that support the continuity of the project.
These are the people according to the following institutions:
Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Lucía García
Jaime Zamorano (PI Complutense)
Jesus Galleg (COPI Complutense y coordinador de Grupo GUAIX)
Ainhoa Penning (Técnico de asistencia proyectos)
Sergio Pascual (Investigador)
Nicolas Cardiel (Investigador)
José Gomez (Investigador – Desarrollador de las aplicaciones de Cities at Night 1.0)
Paco Ocaña (Investigador)
Savestars Consulting S.L.
Iván Sánchez, CEO
Pamela Cepeda, Project manager
Emma Howard, Traductora e investigadora en comunicación cultural
Scifabric
Daniel Lombraña, CEO de Scifabric Desarroyador de Crowdcrafting y Darkskies 1.0
Fundación Ibercivis
Francisco Sanz, PI Ibercivis y PI proyecto FECYT
Stars4All
Esteben Gonzalez, Investigador y mantenimientos web
University of Exeter
PI Universidad de Exeter y CO-PI proyecto EMISSI@N – Experto en Ecología de la noche
Jonathan Bennie, CO-PI proyecto EMISSI@N – Experto en distribución de especies.
Emma Rosenfeld, Traductora y técnico de apoyo
Simon Dzurjak, Traductora y técnico de apoyo
Cegep de Sherbrooke
Martin Aubé, PI de Cegep de Sherberook – Experto en modelización de contaminación lumínica
Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía-CSIC
Alicia Peregrina, Representante IAA
NOAO
Connie Walker, Embajadora de Cities at Night
You can participate by helping us by locating or georeferencing night images of the ISS. Send us an email to citiesatnightiss@gmail.com
We are always looking for the best ways to continue growing and developing. If you want to form a consortium and apply to a fund, write to us at citiesatnightiss@gmail.com
We are always looking for new resources that make the continuity of the project possible. Write to us citiesatnightiss@gmail.com
Cities at night present

Didactic Unit – Light Pollution
This document aims to generate social awareness about the problem of light pollution, bring scientific research closer to schools and of course encourage young people to participate in our project.

Cities at Night in Newsera Project
As a citizen science project, Cities at Night participates in the 2021/2022 program to work on its communication strategy with the participation of journalists and science communicators in its different laboratories

A law against light pollution with many lights-Spain
The new draft of the decree law that wants to reduce energy spending does not give any guarantee, according to the author, “that it will really do what it seeks”

Cities seen at night from space
11 images taken from space, where National Geographic talks about our Cities at night project

La part fosca dels LED
Story data writes a great report on how light pollution in Barcelona (Spain) is growing

Un mapa de la Tierra de noche a color para controlar la Contaminación Lumínica
Workshop T3ch Fest 2023
Our Partners
Cities at night has the collaboration of the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT) – Ministry of Science and Innovation, through its 2018 call for grants for the development of scientific, technological and innovation culture.
Contact with Cities at Night
Contact us if you need general information, if you want to help with the project by georeferencing images, or if you are a media outlet and want to know more about Cities at night, leave us a message. We will answer you very soon:
All images have been taken by astronauts from NASA, CSA-ASC, ESA, ROSCOSMOS and JAXA. You can find the original pictures on the website “Gateway to astronaut photography of Earth”:

Creative Commons License. Cities at Night by Alejandro Sánchez de Miguel et al. Atlas of astronaut photos of Earth at night A&G (2014) is distributed under Creative Commons Non commercial attribution – Share 4.0 International licence.
However, if the Cities at Night data are a principal component of a science paper then co-authorship to PI’s should be offered.