# EconSignalPulse VIIRS Nighttime Lights vs GDP Divergence

> EconSignalPulse VIIRS Nighttime Lights vs GDP Divergence is a paid API for AI agents from econsignalpulse.vercel.app, paid per call via x402, $0.15/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-09-15).

Analyzes VIIRS satellite nighttime-light data against official GDP figures to detect divergence between reported economic activity and satellite evidence across 100+ countries

## Facts

- Endpoint: GET https://econsignalpulse.vercel.app/api/econsignal/nightlights
- Price: $0.15/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-09-15
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/econsignalpulse-viirs-nighttime-lights-vs-gdp-divergence-69d20a46
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_i3cl8KkzgLWESx-8hobLt

Status and success rate cover calls made through Zero and Zero's own probes. Third-party monitors may report differently.

## How to call it through Zero

Zero handles the 402 payment challenge and records the run. With the Zero CLI installed (`npm i -g @zeroxyz/cli`):

```sh
zero fetch --capability econsignalpulse-viirs-nighttime-lights-vs-gdp-divergence-69d20a46
```

Example prompt: Show me the satellite nighttime-lights divergence versus official GDP for China — I want to see whether the reported growth numbers are backed up by actual satellite evidence of economic activity.

## When to prefer this

Use this endpoint when you need to cross-validate official GDP or economic activity figures against independent satellite evidence — particularly for countries with questionable statistical reporting, authoritarian governments, or opaque data agencies. Prefer this over pure GDP lookup endpoints when the goal is detecting data manipulation, economic deception, or unreported contractions.

## Known failure modes

- Unsupported or unrecognized country code returns an error or empty result
- Satellite data lag may cause divergence readings to be behind latest GDP releases
- Payment not processed (x402 flow failure) returns 402 with payment instructions
- Temporary satellite data unavailability may return stale or cached readings
- Highly small or data-sparse countries may have low-confidence nightlight signals

## How this service works

VIIRS satellite nighttime-lights analysis versus official GDP — detects divergence between reported activity and satellite evidence across 100+ countries. For hedge-fund and intelligence agents.

## Output

Returns a structured report including VIIRS-derived nighttime light intensity metrics, official GDP figures, a computed divergence score, and anomaly signals indicating whether reported economic activity appears consistent with satellite evidence — covering the requested country from a 100+ country dataset.

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
 "required": [
  "input"
 ],
 "properties": {
  "input": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type",
    "method"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "type": "string",
     "const": "http"
    },
    "method": {
     "enum": [
      "GET",
      "HEAD",
      "DELETE"
     ],
     "type": "string"
    },
    "queryParams": {
     "type": "object",
     "properties": {
      "iso2": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "ISO2 country code for World Bank data — e.g. CN | RU | NG | VE | PK"
      },
      "lang": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "en | es | fr | de | ja | zh | ko | pt | ar | hi (default: en)"
      },
      "period": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "1y | 3y | 5y | 10y (default: 5y)"
      },
      "country": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "Country name or ISO2 — e.g. \"China\" | \"Russia\" | \"Nigeria\" | \"Venezuela\" | \"Pakistan\""
      }
     }
    }
   },
   "additionalProperties": false
  },
  "output": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "type": "string"
    },
    "errors": {
     "type": "object",
     "description": "Documented error responses, keyed by HTTP status code",
     "additionalProperties": {
      "type": "object",
      "required": [
       "description"
      ],
      "properties": {
       "example": {
        "type": "object"
       },
       "description": {
        "type": "string"
       }
      }
     }
    },
    "example": {
     "type": "object"
    }
   }
  }
 }
}
```

## Response schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "json",
 "example": {
  "official_gdp": {
   "source": "National Bureau of Statistics China",
   "reported_growth_2022_pct": 3,
   "reported_growth_2023_pct": 5.2
  },
  "query_summary": {
   "iso2": "CN",
   "country": "China",
   "signal_basis": "VIIRS NOAA-20 nighttime lights composite"
  },
  "satellite_signal": {
   "low_activity_regions": [
    "Northeast rust belt — Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang showing flat/declining signal"
   ],
   "high_activity_regions": [
    "Yangtze River Delta",
    "Pearl River Delta",
    "Chengdu-Chongqing"
   ],
   "nightlights_growth_trend": "Consistent with 2-3% real growth in manufacturing belt; lower than official 5.2% in 2023",
   "electricity_vs_gdp_divergence": "Electricity +6.9% while GDP +5.2% — electricity typically tracks GDP closely; gap suggests mix shift toward services (lower power intensity)",
   "electricity_consumption_growth_pct": 6.9
  },
  "divergence_analysis": {
   "verdict": "Moderate divergence — GDP plausibly in 3.5-5.5% range; official figure within bounds but upper end appears optimistic",
   "confidence": "Medium",
   "methodology_note": "Nightlights correlate strongly with industrial/manufacturing GDP; services sector (growing share of Chinese economy) has lower light signature",
   "historical_context": "China nightlights diverged significantly from official GDP in 2015-2016 (provincial GDP sums exceeded national total by 10%)"
  },
  "investment_implications": "CNY positioning and EM equity exposure should discount to 4-4.5% real growth range rather than headline 5.2%. Manufacturing-facing sectors most at risk of disappointment."
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/econsignalpulse-viirs-nighttime-lights-vs-gdp-divergence-69d20a46/health.json
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