Earthquake Impact on Nightlights in Myanmar

Earthquake Impact on Nightlights in Myanmar#

On 28th of March, 2025 there was a 7.7 magnitude earthquake that hit Myanmar and brought havoc to many communities within the country UNOCHA Situation Report, 2025. The World Myanmar Economists’ Office would like to see if there was drastic changes in Nighttime Lights before and after the earthquake to ascertain changes in economic activity.

Data#

This version of nighttime lights analysis was conducted using Collection-2 of NASA VIIRS Gap-Filled Lunar BRDF-Adjusted Nighttime Lights Daily product (VNP46A2). This collection was released only in October 2024 and correlation studies are yet to be done comparing the values from this collection to the older ones.

However, given Collection-1 has been paused in 2025, this is the next best source of information from BlackMarble.

Methodology#

Google Earth Engine was used to process the nighttime lights data at different administrative aggregations. The results are then overlayed with damage estimates provided by the team and with USGS Shakemaps.

Insights#

Earthquake Map#

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  • High Damage: Admin 1 locations in the 90th percentile of earthquake damage and 70th percentile of impact estimates

  • Low Damage: Admin 1 locations in the bottm 10th percentile of earthquake damage and bottom 30th percentile of impact estimates

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Figure saved to ../../../docs/images/highly_impacted_admin1_ntl.png
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Figure saved to ../../../docs/images/least_impacted_admin1_ntl.png
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Contents