Earth at Night

  • Credit

    NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

Earth at Night

The influence humans have had on their planet can be seen from space. Viewing Earth at night, we see the lights of countless villages, towns, and cities. Fires from slash-and-burn farming and the burn-off of natural gas in oil fields appear in red and yellow. This perspective unveils the breadth of human activity on Earth. It spans the globe.

An image showing Earth's light sources on a rotating globe, where white represents stable urban lights and fire data is shown in red and yellow.

Metadata

  • Sensor

    DMSP/OLS

  • Animation ID

    556

  • Video ID

    SVS1999-0001

  • Start Timecode

    01:10:19:02

  • End Timecode

    01:11:12:15

  • Animator

    Alex Kekesi

  • Studio

    SVS

  • Visualization Date

    1999/01/21

  • Scientist

    Christopher Elvidge (NOAA/NGDC), Kimberly Baugh (NOAA/NGDC), Marc Imhoff (NASA/GSFC)

  • Keywords

    Night lights

  • DLESE Subject

    Natural hazards, Human geography

  • Data Date

    1994/10 - 1995/03

  • Pao ID

    G03-046

  • Animation Type

    Regular