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Map of the Black Sea at night: the lights on land in 2024 and 33 rings on the water, one for each year from 1992 to 2024, coloured by the light on the coast beside them.
2024

The Black Sea · 33 years from orbit

The Black Sea at night, 1992–2024: the port cities that lit up and the ones that went dark

One satellite image for every year, showing the lights along the shore. On the map, each ring on the water is a year: 2024 against the shore, 1992 furthest out, and its colour shows how brightly the coast beside it was lit. By the shore, in the rings of recent years, Ukraine’s coast goes dark and Turkey’s lights up.

dark → bright

Scroll: the map takes you from port to port.

Whose shore holds the light

Add up all the light on land within 10 km of the water. In the early 1990s, 25.4% of it came from the coast Ukraine controls today, between the Danube and the Dnipro. In 2022–2024, 2.7% was left.

Over the same years Turkey’s coast rose from 16.1% to 48.6%. About 6 points of that rise come from the change of satellite in 2014 (the dotted line); the rise also shows within each instrument’s years taken on their own. The same change explains about 2.5 points of the Ukrainian coast’s fall.

Each coast’s share of the light on the Black Sea coast, 1992–20240%25%50%75%100%19922000200820162024Turkey 48%Georgia 3.3%Abkhazia, occupied 4.6%Russia 20%Crimea, occupied 11%Ukr. occupied 2022 2.1%Ukraine 1.9%Romania 4.1%Bulgaria 5.6%

2022–2024

Odesa, Mykolaiv, Kherson: the coast that went dark

In 2023 Odesa’s light fell to 64% of its 2013 level, measured with the same satellite. Mykolaiv fell to 4%, and Kherson had nothing left above the satellite’s threshold: the city was occupied from 2 March 2022, liberated on 11 November 2022 and then shelled from the other bank of the Dnipro.

From 10 October 2022, Russia struck Ukraine’s power grid in waves. On 10 December 2022, more than one and a half million people in the Odesa region were left without electricity.

Darkness does not mean the ports stopped. Through the sea corridor Ukraine opened in August 2023, Odesa’s three ports (Odesa, Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi) handled 79.9 million tonnes of cargo in 2024, almost as much as in 2018 (85.9 million), by the Ukrainian ports authority’s counts, with the city at about two-thirds of its 2013 light.

A heap of grain in the steel hold of a ship
Grain in a ship’s hold in the port of Odesa, May 2023 · U.S. Embassy Kyiv Ukraine, Public domain

2022–2024

Mariupol: the satellite sees lamps, not people

Mariupol was shelled from 2 March 2022 and besieged until 20 May, when Russia announced it had taken the Azovstal steelworks. In the year of the siege the city’s light fell to 59% of its 2013 level.

In 2024, under Russian occupation, it was back at 102%. The satellite measures lamps that are switched on: it cannot say who left, who died or who lives there now.

A street with cars leading to the chimneys and blast furnaces of a steelworks
The Azovstal steelworks seen from central Mariupol, October 2014 · Chad Nagle, CC BY 2.0

2014–2024

Occupied Crimea: ever brighter

Russia occupied Crimea in 2014 and signed the illegal annexation on 18 March; the UN General Assembly declared the referendum invalid. Between 2013 and 2022–2024 the light on the peninsula’s coast grew 2.4 times, faster than on any other coast of the sea.

Kerch, the end of the bridge Russia opened in May 2018, had reached 250% of its 2013 light by 2024. Feodosia had reached 240%, Yevpatoria 293%. North of the peninsula, on the bank of the Dnipro that Ukraine holds, Kherson was dark.

1992–2014

Russia’s coast: the resorts and the Olympic city

Between the early 1990s and 2011–2013, the light of Gelendzhik grew 4.2 times, Anapa’s 3.3 times and Sochi’s 2.4 times. For the 2014 Winter Olympics Russia spent around $50 billion.

Further west, Novorossiysk has also loaded Kazakh oil since October 2001, through the Caspian Pipeline Consortium’s terminal.

A wide building site with cranes and arenas under construction
The Olympic venues under construction in Adler, Sochi, summer 2013 · Sergei Kazantsev, CC BY-SA 3.0

2000

Georgia, 2000: first the power went

The rings beside Georgia are almost black in the 1990s. In 2000, Batumi had 23% of its 2013 light and Poti 7%. At the end of 2001, according to the World Bank, 94% of households in Tbilisi had power around the clock, against 25% in other cities and 7% in villages.

Further north, Sukhumi had been through the war of 1992–1993: it had about 120,000 people before the war, and after it fell on 27 September 1993, some 50,000 people fled Sukhumi alone. Abkhazia is Georgian territory under Russian occupation.

A tall burnt-out building with empty windows behind an empty square
Sukhumi’s former Council of Ministers building, burnt out in the war, photographed in 2014 · Hons084, CC BY-SA 4.0

2004–2024

Batumi: the light came before the buildings

In May 2004 Adjara’s leader Aslan Abashidze left for Moscow. Between 2004 and 2011–2013 Batumi’s light grew 2.2 times (4.4 times since the early 1990s). The city’s built-up area grew far more slowly: from 10.7 to 13.4 km² between 1990 and 2020, according to the European Commission’s GHSL. The light grew long before the buildings did.

The building came next: in the decade up to 2022 Adjara issued 8,317 building permits. Casinos have been banned in Turkey since 1998, and since 2011 Turks can cross the border with an ID card alone; in 2012 Turkey’s ambassador told Hürriyet Daily News that nearly all the customers of Batumi’s casinos were Turks.

A low port with cranes at the foot of mountains, seen from the water
The port of Batumi from the sea, July 2004 · AlexP at nl.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 2.5 nl
A row of tall towers on the seafront, seen from the water
Batumi from the sea, July 2015 · herr.eichhorn from Berlin, Germany, CC BY-SA 2.0

1992–2024

Turkey’s coast: almost 500 km of light

On the 485 km of shore from the Georgian border to Samsun (measured along a smoothed coastline), the 5 km stretches with light above the satellite’s threshold were 66% in 1992–1994 and 93% in 2011–2013, with the same series of satellites; since 2020, all of them. Since 2007 the Black Sea Coastal Highway has run along here, 542 km long, built partly on land reclaimed from the sea.

After 2013, with the same satellite, the light on Turkey’s coast grew 2.0 times, faster than anywhere except Crimea: Giresun reached 172% of its 2013 light in 2024, Ordu 170%, Rize 161%.

A stone bank and a concrete promenade by the sea
The rock fill and promenade on the Trabzon shore, March 2014 · Radosław Botev, CC BY 3.0 pl

2007–2024

Constanța, Varna, Burgas: the war shows in the port

Between the early 1990s and 2011–2013, Constanța’s light grew 2.4 times, and that of Varna and Burgas about 1.6 times. In Constanța most of the rise came before Romania joined the European Union on 1 January 2007: by 2004 the city already had 94% of its 2013 light. Between 2013 and 2022–2024 the light on Romania’s coast grew 1.4 times and on Bulgaria’s 1.4 times: more slowly than in Turkey or Crimea.

In 2023 the port of Constanța had the busiest year in its history: 67.2 million tonnes by sea, according to Eurostat, against 49.9 in 2021. In the first seven months of 2023 alone, the port authority counted 12.5 million tonnes of Ukrainian goods.

Large concrete silo buildings above the port’s railway lines
The Anghel Saligny grain silos in the port of Constanța, January 2014 · Rotaru Florin, CC BY-SA 3.0 ro

All 31 cities

On the map below you can choose a city yourself: tap the coast or pick it from the list, and see its light year by year on the rings beside it.

Choose a city ↓

Your city on the coast#

Tap a city on the map or choose it from the list: the rings beside it stay lit, and the card shows its light in every year.

2024

You can also tap straight on the map, on any stretch of coast.

Each coast’s share of the light, year by year#

Each coast’s share of the light on land within 10 km of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, for every year. The dotted line separates the two satellites.

Each coast’s share of the light on the Black Sea coast, 1992–20240%25%50%75%100%19922000200820162024Turkey 48%Georgia 3.3%Abkhazia, occupied 4.6%Russia 20%Crimea, occupied 11%Ukr. occupied 2022 2.1%Ukraine 1.9%Romania 4.1%Bulgaria 5.6%

The coast Ukraine controls today lost most: from 25.4% in 1992–1994 to 14.3% in 2011–2013 and 2.7% in 2022–2024. Occupied Crimea fell from 14.0% to 8.8% and rose again to 10.2%. Turkey went from 16.1% to 48.6%.

How much each city’s light changed#

Cities run in the order of the coast, from the Bosporus northwards and then clockwise. The first column compares 2011–2013 with 1992–1994 (the DMSP satellites), the second compares 2022–2024 with 2013 (the VIIRS instrument); a value below 1 means a fall.

DMSP satellites: 1992–2013. VIIRS instrument: 2014–2024. Lit area: km² with light above the threshold in the 10 km circle, 1992–1994 average → 2011–2013 average (same satellites).
CityCoast2011–13 vs 1992–942022–24 vs 2013Lit area, km²
BurgasBulgaria×1.55×1.31167 → 197
VarnaBulgaria×1.56×1.17207 → 243
ConstanțaRomania×2.35×1.21131 → 172
ChornomorskUkraine×1.51×0.45129 → 155
OdesaUkraine×1.15×0.74209 → 209
MykolaivUkraine×1.07×0.13255 → 254
KhersonUkraine×0.87×0.28254 → 232
YevpatoriaCrimea, occupied×1.45×2.65112 → 131
SevastopolCrimea, occupied×1.35×1.38217 → 222
YaltaCrimea, occupied×2.00×1.4583 → 114
FeodosiaCrimea, occupied×1.33×2.1189 → 93
KerchCrimea, occupied×1.06×2.48184 → 161
BerdianskUkr. occupied 2022×1.08×1.11110 → 111
MariupolUkr. occupied 2022×1.11×0.80221 → 220
TaganrogRussia×1.31×1.24204 → 211
YeyskRussia×1.68×1.2765 → 92
AnapaRussia×3.25×1.34117 → 186
NovorossiyskRussia×1.80×1.12225 → 280
GelendzhikRussia×4.15×1.4182 → 177
TuapseRussia×2.04×1.15115 → 177
SochiRussia×2.40×1.20141 → 191
SukhumiAbkhazia, occupied×9.01×1.1230 → 149
PotiGeorgia×5.32×1.2324 → 88
BatumiGeorgia×4.41×1.2758 → 128
RizeTurkey×1.77×1.62205 → 211

What light measures and what it doesn’t#

The images come from a series published by Xuecao Li and colleagues: the world’s night lights for every year from 1992 to 2024, at about 1 km resolution. Up to 2013, images from the American military DMSP satellites (five of them, calibrated against each other); from 2014, images from the VIIRS instrument, converted to the older satellites’ scale. As the authors recommend, only values above 7 on the 0–63 scale are kept.

The change of instrument does not have the same effect everywhere. In 2013, a year both saw, the ratio of the new version to the old varies from city to city between 0.60 times (Yevpatoria) and 1.68 times (Poti). So no city’s index compares a year after 2013 with one before: each year is measured against 2013 seen by the same instrument (2013 = 100). The coasts’ shares are computed within each year; the 2014 change moves them by a few points: Turkey 6.0 up, Ukraine 2.5 and Crimea 1.7 down. On the rings, the new years are put on the old scale for each stretch of coast, with 2013 as the bridge.

For each city, the light on land within a 10 km circle around its GeoNames coordinates is added up. The shares add up the light on land within 10 km of the water, on coasts divided along Natural Earth’s province borders. Crimea and the coast occupied since 2022 are counted separately and named as Ukrainian territory under Russian occupation; Abkhazia as Georgian territory under Russian occupation.

The rings are lines parallel to the shore, 2.4 km apart (1.55 km in the narrow Sea of Azov). The colour of each piece of ring combines two things: how much light there was on the nearest 5 km of coast in that ring’s year, and how that compares with the brightest years of the same stretch. So a coast that is going dark shows it even while it stays brighter than its neighbours. The older satellites’ data, which are noisier, are lightly smoothed (a year counts for half, each neighbour for a quarter). Mykolaiv and Kherson lie on the Dnipro–Bug estuary, so their light shows on the rings at the estuary’s mouth.

Light is not the same as people or money. In Ukraine after 2022 it also fell because of strikes on the power grid and, in some cities such as Kyiv, deliberately dimmed street lighting. A city that swaps sodium lamps for white LEDs can look darker to VIIRS, which cannot see light below 500 nm, even though it shines brighter. The centres of big cities hit the older satellites’ ceiling of 63, so their growth is underestimated. As an independent check, the built-up area from the European Commission’s GHSL for 1990–2020 is used.

The two patches of light out at sea in the north-west appear in the images of recent years; they have not been identified and are not part of any sum above.

Sources#

  • Li, X., Zhou, Y., Zhao, M., Zhao, X. (2020), A harmonized global nighttime light dataset 1992–2018, Scientific Data 7:168; dataset extended to 1992–2024 (figshare, version 10, 2025, CC BY 4.0). figshare.com
  • European Commission, Joint Research Centre: GHSL built-up surface and volume, R2023A, 1990–2020. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
  • GeoNames, cities15000 (city coordinates, CC BY 4.0). download.geonames.org
  • Natural Earth 10m land and admin-1 provinces (public domain). www.naturalearthdata.com
  • World Bank, Lampietti et al. (2004), Revisiting Reform in the Energy Sector: Lessons from Georgia (hours of electricity, 2000–2001). documents1.worldbank.org
  • Human Rights Watch (1995), Georgia/Abkhazia: Violations of the Laws of War and Russia’s Role in the Conflict. www.hrw.org
  • RFE/RL (6 May 2004), Abashidze leaves for Moscow. www.rferl.org
  • Hürriyet Daily News (1 May 2012), Turks flock to Batum casinos (Turkey’s ambassador Engin Arıkan). hurriyetdailynews.com
  • Global Gaming Business (2016), Turkey asks Georgia to close casinos (casinos banned in Turkey since 1998). ggbmagazine.com
  • Interfax (2011), Georgia and Turkey: border crossing without passports. interfax.com
  • Al Jazeera (14 Aug 2008), Russian forces sink Georgian ships near Poti. www.aljazeera.com
  • Al Jazeera (2 Feb 2014), Sochi: the most expensive Games ever. www.aljazeera.com
  • PortNews (2009), first tanker loaded at the CPC terminal, 13 October 2001. en.portnews.ru
  • UN News (27 Mar 2014), General Assembly resolution 68/262 on Crimea. news.un.org
  • Moscow Times (15 May 2018), Putin opens the bridge to Crimea; EEAS statement on the rail link (23 Dec 2019). themoscowtimes.com
  • JusticeInfo, The siege of Mariupol; Al Jazeera (21 May 2022), Azovstal. www.justiceinfo.net
  • The Defense Post / AFP (3 Mar 2022), Russia captures Kherson; Euromaidan Press (12 Nov 2022), Kherson liberated. www.thedefensepost.com
  • Kyiv Independent (24 May 2022), Mykolaiv without running water. kyivindependent.com
  • Al Jazeera (31 Oct 2022 and 10 Dec 2022), strikes on Ukraine’s power grid; Odesa without power. www.aljazeera.com
  • Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority (USPA), management report 2024 (Greater Odesa 79.9 Mt) and archived port tables 2015–2018. www.uspa.gov.ua
  • Eurostat, gross weight of goods handled in main ports (mar_mg_aa_pwhd): Constanța, Varna, Burgas. ec.europa.eu
  • Port of Constanța administration (16 Aug 2023): 12.5 million tonnes of Ukrainian goods in January–July 2023. www.portofconstantza.com
  • RFE/RL (3 Sep 2022), Batumi: 8,317 building permits in Adjara over a decade. www.rferl.org
  • European Commission (2007), Bulgaria and Romania join the EU. europa.eu
  • Apaydın & Durmaz, the Black Sea Coastal Highway (Süleyman Demirel University); Milli Gazete (2017), 542 km on sea fill. acikerisim.sdu.edu.tr
  • NASA Earth Observatory (2022), Tracking night lights in Ukraine; Huang et al. (2023), Frontiers in Environmental Science. www.frontiersin.org
  • Kyba et al. (2017), Science Advances: LED lighting and VIIRS (GFZ press release). idw-online.de
  • Photographs: Wikimedia Commons, authors and licences in each caption. commons.wikimedia.org