Earth  ID: 30028

Earth at Night 2012

This new space-based view of Earth's city lights is a composite assembled from data acquired by the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) satellite. The data was acquired over nine days in April 2012 and thirteen days in October 2012. It took the satellite 312 orbits and 2.5 terabytes of data to get a clear shot of every parcel of Earth's land surface and islands. This new data was then mapped over existing MODIS Blue Marble imagery to provide a realistic view of the planet.

The view was made possible by the "day-night band" of Suomi NPP's Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite. VIIRS detects light in a range of wavelengths from green to near-infrared and uses "smart" light sensors to observe dim signals such as city lights, auroras, wildfires, and reflected moonlight. This low-light sensor can distinguish night lights tens to hundreds of times better than previous satellites.

 

Related


For More Information

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=79765


Credits

Robert Simmon (Sigma Space Corporation): Visualizer
Leann Johnson (Global Science and Technology, Inc.): Project Support
Eric Sokolowsky (Global Science and Technology, Inc.): Project Support
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA Earth Observatory image by Robert Simmon, using Suomi NPP VIIRS data provided courtesy of Chris Elvidge (NOAA National Geophysical Data Center). Suomi NPP is the result of a partnership between NASA, NOAA, and the Department of Defense.

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/30028

Mission:
Suomi NPP

Data Used:
Suomi NPP/VIIRS also referred to as: VIIRS
Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details nor the data sets themselves on our site.

This item is part of this series:
Hyperwall

Keywords:
SVS >> HDTV
SVS >> Night
SVS >> Night lights
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Human Dimensions >> Environmental Impacts >> Urbanization
SVS >> Hyperwall
SVS >> MODIS
NASA Science >> Earth
SVS >> Presentation
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Human Dimensions >> Population >> Population Estimates

GCMD keywords can be found on the Internet with the following citation: Olsen, L.M., G. Major, K. Shein, J. Scialdone, S. Ritz, T. Stevens, M. Morahan, A. Aleman, R. Vogel, S. Leicester, H. Weir, M. Meaux, S. Grebas, C.Solomon, M. Holland, T. Northcutt, R. A. Restrepo, R. Bilodeau, 2013. NASA/Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Earth Science Keywords. Version 8.0.0.0.0