Composite image of Europe and Africa at night as seen from the Suomi NPP satellite orbiting earth from April and October 2012. The new data was mapped over existing Blue Marble imagery of Earth to provide a realistic view of the planet. The nighttime view was made possible by the new satelliteÕs day-night band of the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite. VIIRS 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. In this case, auroras, fires, and


Composite image of Europe and Africa at night as seen from the Suomi NPP satellite orbiting earth from April and October 2012. The new data was mapped over existing Blue Marble imagery of Earth to provide a realistic view of the planet. The nighttime view was made possible by the new satelliteÕs day-night band of the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite. VIIRS 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. In this case, auroras, fires, and other stray light have been removed to emphasize the city lights.


Size: 8192px × 8192px
Location: Earth
Photo credit: © NASA Photo / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: africa, black, earth, east, electricity, europe, globe, habitation, human, lights, marble, middle, nasa, night, nighttime, orbit, orbiting, planet, satellite, space, square, suomi, view