This composite image shows Earth's night lights as observed in 2016. The compositing technique selected the best cloud-free nights in each month over each land mass. The team has also reprocessed 2012 data with the new techniques so that researchers can compare and contrast light sources over the years. By late 2017, Román and colleagues hope to provide daily high-definition views of Earth at night.
NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens, using Suomi NPP VIIRS data from Miguel Román, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
2017-03-23 12:40:11
NASA <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/new-night-lights-maps-open-up-possible-real-time-applications">https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/new-night-lights-maps-open-up-possible-real-time-applications</a> (<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.nasa.gov/specials/blackmarble/media/BlackMarble20161km.jpg">image link</a>)