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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
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32 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?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhy worry? They are not wasting electricity ;-)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAccording to a new journalistic standard.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYep - there even appears to be a giant storm making landfall at the U.S. North Eastern coast, perhaps telling us something about when this data was collected...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisApparently the term hi-res refers only to the fixed image: click on it for a larger image...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisyou mean Tesla of whose inventions were hoisted by the likes of men like Edison ;0
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf we go by this video, the Earth from space looks completely unimpressive and unlit.... I had expected something slightly better from NASA.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCan someone explain what are those lights in central/western Australia?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYes, I was wondering about that. When did a huge urban complex spring up in the middle of the stony desert in Western Australia?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLiving here in Australia I was surprised to see that our central desert areas are well lit at night. Perhaps the aliens have really landed, otherwise I suspect the image processing software may have a few deficiencies.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe commentary on the NASA video says that the lights in central Australia are wildfires.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisp ruper, good analysis, but why the slant? I think the nations that are really doing better are those without the unrealistic dependence on power. Why do people turn on lights at night, instead of sleeping? Even in the US, air conditioning was almost unheard of in residences and schools until the 1970's. We think we'll die without it now... On visiting China several years ago, I found out that schools and public buildings are neither heated nor cooled. 10 degrees or 100 degrees Fahrenheit, no problem--kids, teachers and workers wear their coats, scarves, hats and gloves indoors. My opinion is that our power gluttony is making us soft.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSurprised that the northeastern US is relatively low lit compared to the midwest (Ohio/Great Lakes area)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHow about Tesla!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAstronomy picture of the day has quite a detailed image. But it's not a globe.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNorth Korea is still hard to find.
Those Canadians sure put the lights out and go to bed early. And those (u.s.) southerners and midwesterners must be night owls. Who'd have guessed. The Italians burn the midnight oil too.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNZ is my favorite place on Earth and such a gorgeous place to view the skies. I plan to move there soon; wonderful people, food, scenery, and culture. Folks can keep Australia--I'd rather spend one week in Auckland than a month in Sydney!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisVery handy for a light bulb seller to target prime territory.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs technology advances and we create more ways of sensing electonically, I'm sure the Tricorder will be very useful for battlefield medics to evaluate the extent of injuries. Also, the point-man in a military unit will be able to use such technology in a visor to "see" hidden enemies, mines and traps or dangerous but invisible elements in the environment, such as poisonous gasses and radiation. Aside from that, I can't imagine much more use for such a device.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe sensors used to produce these images, their intended purposes and additional images are available at:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/12/video-earth-as-a-glittering-blac.html
http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view.php?id=55167
What is going on in Western Australia???
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIs there a civilisation we are not aware of?
Greetings from Perth, on the Indian Ocean, which was christened 'City of Light' by the first American astronauts who were greeted by the shining city in the sixties! In the meantime, Perth has grown much larger, with now 1.8 million inhabitants, on an area of Greater London.Yes, there IS a civilization here, in this most isolated capital city in the world ! Its climate is said to be the climate that California would wish it had- or so it's said.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAn ideal place for climate escapees from the Northern Hemisphere between November and May, well worth visiting!