Satellite Earth Night Lights

If you ve looked up at the night sky recently you might have been surprised to see a train of bright lights moving.

Satellite earth night lights.

Map by john nelson all over the map. This map shows where earth s nighttime lights have increased in blue and dimmed in pink between 2012 and 2016 based on data from nasa s suomi npp satellite. In this recent nasa produced round the world satellite photo nighttime tour of the earth you can clearly see the dakota fields blazing in the grasslands as north america rolls by. Cities tend to grow along coastlines and transportation networks.

The data was acquired over nine days in april 2012 and 13 days in october 2012. It took 312 orbits to get a clear shot of every parcel of. The night earth map shows the lights that are visible at night on the earth s surface. They have provided a broad beautiful picture showing how humans have shaped the planet and lit up the darkness.

Nasa noaa satellite reveals new views of earth at night. This new global view and animation of earth s city lights is a composite assembled from data acquired by the suomi npp satellite. Noaa s well known nighttime lights images derive from those satellite data. Originally designed to view clouds by moonlight the ols is also used to map the locations of permanent lights on the earth s surface.

Nasa researchers have used these images of nighttime lights to study weather around urban areas. Satellite images of earth at night have been a curiosity for the public and a tool of fundamental research for at least 25 years. This composite image which has become a popular poster shows a global view of earth at night compiled from over 400 satellite images. This image of earth s city lights was created with data from the defense meteorological satellite program dmsp operational linescan system ols.

Version 4 of the dmsp ols nighttime lights time series consists of cloud free composites made using all the available archived dmsp ols smooth resolution data for calendar years. The defense meteorological program dmsp operational line scan system ols has a unique capability to detect visible and near infrared vnir emission sources at night. It is sensitive enough to detect lights as small as a single street lamp and even the nocturnal glow produced by the earth s own atmosphere. Starlink satellites seen after the first launch in may 2019.