Earth at Night

NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released new composite satellite images of the Earth at night today.

These composite images are composed of satellite images taken in April and October of this year by the NASA-NOAA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite, which launched last year. The image was made possible by the satellite’s “day-night band” sensor of the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), which detects light in a range of wavelengths from green to near-infrared and uses filtering techniques to observe dim signals such as city lights, gas flares, auroras, wildfires and reflected moonlight. It took the satellite 312 orbits and 2.5 terabytes of data to capture a clear image of every portion of Earth�s land surface and islands.

A composite image of the Earth at night using images captured from the Suomi NPP satellite in April and October of this year. Credit: NASA Earth Observatory/NOAA NGDC

A composite image of the United States at night using images captured from the Suomi NPP satellite in April and October of this year. Credit: NASA Earth Observatory/NOAA NGDC

A composite map of the world using images captured from by the Suomi NPP satellite in April and October 2012. Credit: NASA Earth Observatory/NOAA NGDC