Almost 40 years to the day after the Apollo 17 crew
snapped the famed "blue marble" image of Earth floating in space on
December 7, 1972, NASA unveiled an unprecedented new look at our planet
at night. A global composite image, constructed using cloud-free night
images from a new NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration satellite, shows the glow of natural and human-built
phenomena across the planet in greater detail than ever before. The
cloud-free pictures, taken with a high-resolution visible and infrared
imager aboard a NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
satellite, capture the night lights of Earth in unprecedented detail.
The so-called day-night band of the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer
Suite, or VIIRS.
On November 12, 2012, the
Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi NPP
satellite captured this nighttime view of southern Asia. The image is
based on data collected by the VIIRS “day-night band,” which detects
light in a range of wavelengths from green to near-infrared. The image
has been brightened to make the city lights easier to distinguish.
A NASA Earth Observatory image
released December 5, 2012 shows the area near the Korean Peninsula on
the night of September 24, 2012. The image was acquired by the Visible
Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi NPP satellite.
The image is based on data collected by the VIIRS "day-night band,"
which detects light in a range of wavelengths from green to
near-infrared and uses filtering techniques to observe signals such as
gas flares, auroras, wildfires, city lights, and reflected moonlight.
The image has been brightened to make the city lights easier to
distinguish.
The wide-area image shows the Korean Peninsula, parts of China and
Japan, the Yellow Sea, and the Sea of Japan.
A NASA Earth Observatory image
released December 5, 2012 shows part of the Atlantic coast of South
America on the night of June 20, 2012. The image was acquired by the
Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi NPP
satellite. The image is based on data collected by the VIIRS "day-night
band," which detects light in a range of wavelengths from green to
near-infrared and uses filtering techniques to observe signals such as
gas flares, auroras, wildfires, city lights, and reflected moonlight.
A NASA Earth Observatory image
released December 5, 2012 shows Britain, Ireland and part of Western
Europe as it appeared on the night of March 27, 2012. The image was
acquired by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the
Suomi NPP satellite. The image is based on data collected by the VIIRS
"day-night band," which detects light in a range of wavelengths from
green to near-infrared and uses filtering techniques to observe signals
such as gas flares, auroras, wildfires, city lights, and reflected
moonlight.
A NASA Earth Observatory image
released December 5, 2012 shows the area near the Nile River valley and
delta on the night of October 13, 2012. The image was acquired by the
Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi NPP
satellite. The image is based on data collected by the VIIRS "day-night
band," which detects light in a range of wavelengths from green to
near-infrared and uses filtering techniques to observe signals such as
gas flares, auroras, wildfires, city lights, and reflected moonlight.
The image has been brightened to make the city lights easier to
distinguish. This image was acquired near the time of the new Moon, and
little moonlight was available to brighten land and water surfaces
A NASA handout released December
5, 2012 of a composite image of Asia and Australia at night, assembled
from data acquired by the Suomi NPP satellite in April and October 2012.
The image was made possible by the satellite's "day-night band" 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
A NASA Earth Observatory handout
released December 5, 2012 of a composite image of Europe, Africa, and
the Middle East at night, assembled from data acquired by the Suomi NPP
satellite in April and October 2012. The image was made possible by the
satellite's "day-night band" 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.
