Download and Retrieve Nightlight Data — get_nightlight

This function downloads nightlight data from the Earth Observation Group's website. It scrapes the website to find and download the latest available nightlight data for the specified year and month.

Usage

get_nightlight_data(year, month, version = "v10",
destination_dir = ".", timeout = 1200)

Arguments

year: A numeric or character year (e.g., 2020).
month: A numeric or character month (1-12). This will be formatted as two digits.
version: The version of the nightlight data (default is "v10").
destination_dir: Directory to save the downloaded .tif file (default is current directory).
timeout: Timeout in seconds for the download (default is 1200 seconds).

Value

The file path of the downloaded .tif file, or NULL if an error occurs.

Details

The function constructs the appropriate URL for the specified year, month, and data version. It scrapes the directory listing on the website to find the latest available .tif file for the requested time period. The function then downloads this file and saves it to the specified directory. If no suitable file is found, or an error occurs, it returns NULL.

Examples

if (FALSE) { # \dontrun{
  # Example: Download nightlight data for March 2021
  file_path <- get_nightlight_data(2021, 3)
  print(file_path)
} # }