Artificial lights reveal a booming industry in the Arctic's icy expanse

According to the latest observations from NASA's Earth Observatory, the icy Arctic is rapidly brightening during the polar night as a result of increased industrial activity. Using satellite data, an international team of NASA researchers discovered that between 1992 and 2013, the Arctic was becoming brighter by 5% annually, culminating in approximately 234,000 square miles transitioning from dark to illuminated.

- Only 15% of the lit areas of the Arctic during the study period (1992-2013) contained human settlements, such as homes or residential buildings. This means that the majority of artificial light is the result of industrial activity, not the development of cities or housing estates, - 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 team of experts is working on distinguishing natural light sources to update the analysis of artificial light in the Arctic.

In the Arctic, industry is mainly mining. 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 largely remained dark. The largest increases in illuminated areas were recorded in the Russian part of the Arctic (169,504 square miles) during the study period, particularly in Khanty-Mansiysk (44,186 square miles) and Yamalo-Nenets (41,643 square miles).

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, which explains the reduction in artificial lighting in certain areas dependent on oil, gas, or mining without significant human settlement and economic diversification.

In 2013, the total illuminated area in oil and gas extraction regions in the Russian Arctic—including the Khanty-Mansiysk, Yamalo-Nenets, and Nenets regions—was 131,000 square miles, nearly equivalent to the size of Germany. The total illuminated area of the European Arctic was 61,000 square miles, while the North American Arctic was 19,000 square miles. 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.