+ Visit NASA.gov + Advanced Search   + About the Server   + Animation List   + How to Use the Server Previous Animation Next Animation The Lights of Earth: United States The Lights of Earth can be seen from space. Human-made lights highlight particularly developed or populated areas of the Earth's surface, including the seaboards of Europe, the eastern United States, and Japan. Many large cities are located near rivers or oceans so that they can exchange goods cheaply by boat. Particularly dark areas include the central parts of South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia. The above image is actually a composite of hundreds of pictures made by the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) currently operates four satellites carrying the Operational Linescan System (OLS) in low-altitude polar orbits. Three of these satellites record nighttime data. The DMSP-OLS has a unique capability to detect low levels of visible-near infrared (VNIR) radiance at night. With the OLS 'VIS' band data it is possible to detect clouds illuminated by moonlight, plus lights from cities, towns, industrial sites, gas flares, and ephemeral events such as fires and lightning-illuminated clouds. The Nighttime Lights of the World data set is compiled from the October 1994 - March 1995 DMSP nighttime data collected when moonlight was low. Using the OLS thermal infrared band, areas containing clouds were removed and the remaining area used in the time series.    Human-made lights highlight particularly developed or populated areas of the Earths surface, including the seaboards of the eastern United States. Duration: 24.0 seconds Available formats:   320x240 (30 fps) MPEG-1   3 MB   320x240     JPEG         18 KB   720x480 (29.97 fps) DV           96 MB How to play our movies    The above image is actually a composite of hundreds of pictures made by the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) currently operates four satellites carrying the Operational Linescan System (OLS) in low-altitude polar orbits. Available formats:   2880 x 1944     TIFF 1 MB   160 x 80           PNG 19 KB   320 x 216         JPEG 18 KB   80 x 40             PNG   5 KB    Three of these satellites record nighttime data. The DMSP-OLS has a unique capability to detect low levels of visible-near infrared (VNIR) radiance at night. With the OLS VIS band data it is possible to detect clouds illuminated by moonlight, plus lights from cities, towns, industrial sites, gas flares, and ephemeral events such as fires and lightning-illuminated clouds. Available formats:   2880 x 1944     TIFF 401 KB   320 x 216         JPEG 3 KB    The Nighttime Lights of the World data set is compiled from the October 1994 - March 1995 DMSP nighttime data collected when moonlight was low. Using the OLS thermal infrared band, areas containing clouds were removed and the remaining area used in the time series. Available formats:   2880 x 1944     TIFF 427 KB   320 x 216         JPEG 3 KB Animation Number: 2396 Animators: Stuart A. Snodgrass (Lead)   Robert Simmon   Craig Mayhew Studio: SVS Completed: 2002-03-06 Scientists: Christopher Elvidge (NOAA/NGDC)   Marc Imhoff (NASA/GSFC) Instrument: DMSP/OLS Data set: Earth at Night Data Collected: 1994/10 - 1995/03 Series: Earth at Night Video: SVS2002-0009 * Keywords: DLESE >> Human geography SVS >> Lights SVS >> Night GCMD >> EARTH SCIENCE >> Biosphere >> Ecological Dynamics >> Fire Occurrence More Information on this topic available at: http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/viewrecord?5826     Please give credit for this item to NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio *Please note: the SVS does not fulfill requests for copies of the tapes in our library. On some of our animation pages, there is a direct link to a video distribution service from which tapes, handled by the Public Affairs Office (PAO)/Goddard TV, including some of our animations may be ordered. General information on this service can be found here. Back to Top + Privacy Policy and Important Notices + Reproduction Guidelines NASA Official: SVS Contact: Curator: