Global Urban Activity Changes from COVID-19 Physical Distancing Restrictions Dataset: TRacking Anomalous COVID-19 induced changEs in NightTime Lights (TRACE-NTL)

We use satellite-derived (NASA Black Marble) nighttime lights to identify, quantify, and map daily changes in human activity that are atypical for each urban area, globally, from the beginning of the pandemic until two years after its onset. The dataset TRACE-NTL consists of global daily urban disruption and recovery metrics as a response to COVID-19. TRACE-NTL: ├───ancillary├───data└───metrics ├───disruption │ ├───change_segment │ ├───city_uncertainty │ ├───daily_change │ └───daily_qa_flags └───recovery https://github.com/srijac/covid-19_Nightlights Accompanying paper: Accompanying paper: Chakraborty, S., Stokes, E.C. & Alexander, O. Global urban activity changes from COVID-19 physical distancing restrictions. Sci Data 12, 98 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-025-04398-x