Brighter Lights

I have been flying the night skies in this place for going on two years now and my subjective impression is there are more lights on the ground and they seem brighter, especially in the rural areas and the south part of the country.  We also see far fewer transformers  failing in great white flashes of light.  Other pilots and crewmembers say the same thing when I ask them.  This is a good thing.

Though this is strictly subjective on our part, I wonder if there is a way to measure it.  Photos could be taken from space and the level of light emitted could compared from year to year.  It would be interesting to find out.