SAN FRANCISCO—This incredibly detailed 360-degree view of Earth at night was unveiled during a December 5 presentation at the American Geophysical Union conference. NASA stitched together two months of imagery taken by the new Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) satellite to create a completely cloud-free view of the nighttime planet.
The resolution of VIIRS is six times finer than any previous light-sensing satellite. VIIRS can discern not just city lights but also light from industrial sites, fires, gas flares and boats at sea. NASA and NOAA have begun testing a long list of applications that the satellite will make possible. The observatory will help to improve weather forecasts by mapping nighttime cloud cover; track the movement of wildfires at night; and chart ice, snow and clouds across the Arctic during the long dark winter.
—Mark Fischetti
11 Comments
Add CommentI wonder when these images were recorded. It looks like there is a hurricane or tropical storm off the coast of Florida.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI looked for New Zealand to see how my important country looked at night.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI looked hard and couldn't see it ,then looked at the area East of Australia and saw a single faint glow in the darkness.
Good God , it means I live in place that is almost non exitant.
Great place for those interested in Astronomy with lovely dark sky almost everywheree.
I mean - existent!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBehold Edison's master work!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thiscamera level: potato
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisjk, this is pretty cool (as is the courrier font)
Hey Elderlybloke Kiwi, don't feel too bad. There is something wrong here. Isnt this supposed to be infrared cloud free? I'm not a geography expert, but the US northeast and southeast Florida is hardly lit up at all. Europe looks weird with everything from Scotland to south of France gone, including London and Paris. The Australian desert region lit up more than east or west coasts. Other regions seem to covered in cloud. C'mon Scientific American!!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHmmm....Which country is wasting the most energy?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI agree with Averd. Unless there are huge massive plumes of out of control flame in the desert of Australia, something is amiss. Elderlybloke (respectfully) I looked for New Zealand too. At least Auckland and Wellington should have been visible. The Alps appears to be appropriately dark, and the Nile Delta is the most intensely lit, which worries me because the West is paying much of that electricity bill for a dangerously overpopulated and unstable area. The coast of Saudi Arabia is illuminated, as well as the coastal areas of the oil rich countries, which is oil money galore, merrily, ,merrily, merrily going down the tube. In two generations, the Arabs will be poor again, beating their women in the desert of Nejj and no better off that they were in the last century. The southern part of US looks correct, as does Cali. South America also looks as it should. What might be North Korea is dark and gloomy as one might expect. Kim Jung whathisname turns the lights off when the press is not looking. A tiny light shines from Honolulu. Northern Italy, and an area from Northern France to Germany is there as expected. But I was surprised to see the lights clumping at the base of the Himalayas, while much of southern India seems dark. I thought they were doing better.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNew Zealand? Heck. I looked for Vancouver.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis must be a Saudi based article.
So where is this 'incredibly detailed' 'high resolution' animation? The video here is low def and unimpressive.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMost of South Asia obscured. Is this a USA-Western Europe propaganda image by NASA?
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