This is what the Earth looks like at night. Can you find your favorite country or city? Surprisingly, city lights make this task quite possible. Human-made lights highlight particularly developed or populated areas of the Earth's surface, including the seaboards of Europe, the eastern United States, and Japan. Many large cities are located near rivers or oceans so that they can exchange goods cheaply by boat. Particularly dark areas include the central parts of South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia. The above image is actually a composite of hundreds of pictures made by the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) currently operates four satellites carrying the Operational Linescan System (OLS) in low-altitude polar orbits. Three of these satellites record nighttime data. The DMSP-OLS has a unique capability to detect low levels of visible-near infrared (VNIR) radiance at night. With the OLS 'VIS' band data it is possible to detect clouds illuminated by moonlight, plus lights from cities, towns, industrial sites, gas flares, and ephemeral events such as fires and lightning-illuminated clouds. The Nighttime Lights of the World data set is compiled from the October 1994 - March 1995 DMSP nighttime data collected when moonlight was low. Using the OLS thermal infrared band, areas containing clouds were removed and the remaining area used in the time series. This animation is derived from an image created by Craig Mayhew and Robert Simmon from data provided by Christopher Elvidge of the NOAA National Geophysical Data Center.
Completed
2001-10-19
Earth at Night 2001
Title
Earth at Night 2001
Abstract
This is what the Earth looks like at night. Can you find your favorite country or city? Surprisingly, city lights make this task quite possible. Human-made lights highlight particularly developed or populated areas of the Earth's surface, including the seaboards of Europe, the eastern United States, and Japan. Many large cities are located near rivers or oceans so that they can exchange goods cheaply by boat. Particularly dark areas include the central parts of South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia. The above image is actually a composite of hundreds of pictures made by the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) currently operates four satellites carrying the Operational Linescan System (OLS) in low-altitude polar orbits. Three of these satellites record nighttime data. The DMSP-OLS has a unique capability to detect low levels of visible-near infrared (VNIR) radiance at night. With the OLS 'VIS' band data it is possible to detect clouds illuminated by moonlight, plus lights from cities, towns, industrial sites, gas flares, and ephemeral events such as fires and lightning-illuminated clouds. The Nighttime Lights of the World data set is compiled from the October 1994 - March 1995 DMSP nighttime data collected when moonlight was low. Using the OLS thermal infrared band, areas containing clouds were removed and the remaining area used in the time series. This animation is derived from an image created by Craig Mayhew and Robert Simmon from data provided by Christopher Elvidge of the NOAA National Geophysical Data Center.
Completed
2001-10-19
London at Night
Title
London at Night
Explanation
Do you recognize [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap951119.html ] this intriguing globular [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020416.html ] cluster of stars? It's actually the constellation of city lights surrounding London, England [ http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/snow/1859map/map1859.html ], planet Earth, as recorded with a digital camera [ http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/scripts/sseop/photo.pl?mission=ISS006 &roll=E&frame=22939&QueryResultsFile=1048138731408.tsv ] from the International Space Station [ http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/ 29may_lookingglass.htm ]. Taken in February 2003, north is toward the top and slightly left in this nighttime view. The encircling "London Orbital" highway by-pass, the M25 (... but not Messier 25 [ http://www.seds.org/messier/m/m025.html ]), is easiest to pick out [ http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/sseop/images/EO/lowres/ISS006/ ISS006-E-22939.JPG ] south of the city. Even farther south are the lights of Gatwick airport and just inside the western (left hand) stretch of the Orbital is Heathrow. The darkened Thames river estuary fans out to the city's east. In particular, two small "dark nebulae [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020108.html ]" - Hyde Park and Regents Park - stand out slightly west of the densely packed lights at the city's core.
Europe at Night
Title
Europe at Night
Explanation
Can you find your favorite European city? The above digital fantasy [ http://www.planetaryvisions.com/new.html ] of Europe [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe ] at Night is a digital composite of archived satellite images [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990516.html ] taken both during the day and night. This image [ http://www.planetaryvisions.com/new.html ] is different from what an astronaut would see for reasons including a complete lack of clouds and an unrealistic exaggeration [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030324.html ] of lights and contrasts [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050611.html ]. Even so, the geography underlying the image is captivating. Nighttime light patterns [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040822.html ] have been accumulated from the USAF [ http://www.af.mil/ ] Defense Meteorological Satellite Program [ http://dmsp.ngdc.noaa.gov/dmsp.html ] (DMSP) Operational Linescan System.
Earth at Night 2001
Title
Earth at Night 2001
Abstract
This is what the Earth looks like at night. Can you find your favorite country or city? Surprisingly, city lights make this task quite possible. Human-made lights highlight particularly developed or populated areas of the Earth's surface, including the seaboards of Europe, the eastern United States, and Japan. Many large cities are located near rivers or oceans so that they can exchange goods cheaply by boat. Particularly dark areas include the central parts of South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia. The above image is actually a composite of hundreds of pictures made by the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) currently operates four satellites carrying the Operational Linescan System (OLS) in low-altitude polar orbits. Three of these satellites record nighttime data. The DMSP-OLS has a unique capability to detect low levels of visible-near infrared (VNIR) radiance at night. With the OLS 'VIS' band data it is possible to detect clouds illuminated by moonlight, plus lights from cities, towns, industrial sites, gas flares, and ephemeral events such as fires and lightning-illuminated clouds. The Nighttime Lights of the World data set is compiled from the October 1994 - March 1995 DMSP nighttime data collected when moonlight was low. Using the OLS thermal infrared band, areas containing clouds were removed and the remaining area used in the time series. This animation is derived from an image created by Craig Mayhew and Robert Simmon from data provided by Christopher Elvidge of the NOAA National Geophysical Data Center.
Completed
2001-10-19
Long Island, NY Optical/rada
…
This pair of images of the L
…
6/22/95
Date
6/22/95
Description
This pair of images of the Long Island, New York region is a comparison of an optical photograph (top) and a radar image (bottom), both taken in darkness in April 1994. The photograph at the top was taken by the Endeavour astronauts at about 3 a.m. Eastern time on April 20, 1994. The image at the bottom was acquired at about the same time four days earlier on April 16, 1994 by the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) system aboard the space shuttle Endeavour. Both images show an area approximately 100 kilometers by 40 kilometers (62 miles by 25 miles) that is centered at 40.7 degrees North latitude and 73.5 degrees West longitude. North is toward the upper right. The optical image is dominated by city lights, which are particularly bright in the densely developed urban areas of New York City located on the left half of the photo. The brightest white zones appear on the island of Manhattan in the left center, and Central Park can be seen as a darker area in the middle of Manhattan. To the northeast (right) of the city, suburban Long Island appears as a less densely illuminated area, with the brightest zones occurring along major transportation and development corridors. Since radar is an active sensing system that provides its own illumination, the radar image shows a great amount of surface detail, despite the night-time acquisition. The colors in the radar image were obtained using the following radar channels: red represents the L-band (horizontally transmitted and received), green represents the L-band (horizontally transmitted and vertically received), blue represents the C- band (horizontally transmitted and vertically received). In this image, the water surface - the Atlantic Ocean along the bottom edge and Long Island Sound shown at the top edge - appears red because small waves at the surface strongly reflect the horizontally transmitted and received L-band radar signal. Networks of highways and railroad lines are clearly visible in the radar image, many of them can also be seen as bright lines in the optical image. The runways of John F. Kennedy International Airport appear as a dark rectangle in Jamaica Bay on the left side of the image. Developed areas appear generally as bright green and orange, while agricultural, protected and undeveloped areas appear darker blue or purple. This contrast can be seen on the barrier islands along the south coast of Long Island, which are heavily developed in the Rockaway and Long Beach areas south and east of Jamaica Bay, but further to the east, the islands are protected and undeveloped.
STS-36 night Earth observati
…
Title
STS-36 night Earth observation of New York City, New York
Description
STS-36 Earth observation shows New York City, New York at night lit up along the Eastern seaboard of the United States and the Atlantic Ocean. The city lights designate the densely populated central city and the major highways surrounding it.
Date Taken
1990-03-03
Asia at Night
Title
Asia at Night
Explanation
This is what Asia looks like at night! Can you find your favorite Asian city? Although not all of Asia [ http://www.askasia.org/ ] is shown, city lights might make this task possible. The above picture [ http://julius.ngdc.noaa.gov:8080/production/html/BIOMASS/asia.html ] is actually a composite of over 200 images made by satellites orbiting the Earth [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/lib/earth.html ]. Scans were made by the USAF [ http://www.af.mil/ ] Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Operational Linescan System. The DMSP satellites [ http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/heasarc/missions/dmsp.html ] continue to help in the understanding and prediction of weather phenomena [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970819.html ] as well as provide key information about population patterns [ http://infoserver.ciesin.org/datasets/gpw/asia.html ], city light levels [ http://www.darksky.org/~ida/index.html ], and even rural forest fires [ http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/dmsp/fires/globalfires.html ].
General Description
International Space Station Imagery
New York at Night
Title
New York at Night
Explanation
This tantalizingly clear photo of New York City at night was taken by the astronauts during the Space Radar Laboratory [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap950824.html ] mission of the Space Shuttle Endeavor [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap950807.html ] in March of 1990. In this view, oriented with East up and North to the left, a dense constellation [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap951114.html ] of lights defines the major metropolitan areas. Manhattan, outlined by the dark fingers of the Hudson river below and the East river above, is clearly visible along with the well lit southwestern tip of Long Island. Central Park is visible as a dark streak in the center of Manhattan's orange glow.
The United States at Night
Title
The United States at Night
Explanation
This is what the United States of America [ http://fermi.jhuapl.edu/states/states.html ] looks like at night! Can you find your favorite US city [ http://www.portup.com/houghton/ ] on this image? Surprisingly, city lights make this task quite possible. The above picture [ http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/ngdc/news/night_light.html ] is actually a composite of over 200 images made by satellites orbiting the Earth [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/lib/earth.html ]. Scans were made by the USAF [ http://www.af.mil/ ] Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Operational Linescan System. The DMSP satellites [ http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/heasarc/missions/dmsp.html ] continue to help in the understanding and prediction of weather phenomena [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970819.html ] as well as provide key information about population patterns [ http://www.census.gov/ ], city light levels [ http://www.darksky.org/~ida/index.html ], and even rural forest fires [ http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/ngdc/news/texasok.htm ].
Blackout Hits U.S. and Canad
…
Title
Blackout Hits U.S. and Canadian Cities
Description
*High-resolution Images:* August 14, 2003 (448 KB JPEG) August 15, 2003 (416 KB JPEG) A power failure left many American cities in the dark on the evening of Thursday, Aug. 14, 2003. Authorities report there is no evidence of sabotage, although the cause of the blackout is not currently known. The North American Electric Reliability Council is currently focusing its investigation on the "Lake Erie loop"a series of power transmission lines encircling the lake from Detroit to New York and into Canada. There is some evidence that the loss of a power line in Cleveland, Ohio, was the first in the series of events that led to the widespread power outage. Authorities report that at around 4 p.m. the power flow on the northern side of the loop in Canada was moving from west to east. Then, for reasons not yet known, the power flow suddenly reversed direction and nearly doubled. The blackout began spreading rapidly across the grid with the sudden surge in power. Within minutes, computer programs in 21 different power stations across the region detected the cascading problem and automatically shut down to protect the power grid from damage. Although power was restored to some local areas within hours after the blackout, several major cities were left without power overnight. The change in the nighttime city lights is apparent in this pair of DMSP satellite images. The top image was acquired on Aug. 14, about 20 hours before the blackout, and the bottom image shows the same area on Aug. 15, roughly 7 hours after the blackout. In the bottom scene, notice how the lights in Detroit, Cleveland, Columbus, Toronto, and Ottowa are either missing or visibly reduced. Long Island, New York, was also significantly affected, however, Boston was left relatively untouched. Image courtesy Chris Elvidge, U.S. Air Force
STS-36 night Earth observati
…
Title
STS-36 night Earth observation of the Florida peninsula
Description
STS-36 Earth observation shows the Florida peninsula's outline lit up at night by city lights along the coastlines of the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico.
Date Taken
1990-03-03
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