This week saw NASA-NOAA releasing new visuals of the Earth at night, causing all science geeks to simultaneously jizz their pants. In conjunction with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), NASA employed the use of their new Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite to capture cloud free images of a presumably sleeping Mother Earth. Unlike daytime photos of the Earth, these images display glowing capillaries of both natural, and man-made, origin. Steve Miller, a researcher at NOAA’s Colorado State University Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere, had this to say:
“For all the reasons that we need to see Earth during the day, we also need to see Earth at night… Unlike humans, the Earth never sleeps.”
Photo Courtesy of NASA.
Usually the Earth is best photographed at day, but thanks to VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite), we are now able to see the lights of boats lining the Nile River, and wildfires burning across Australia. VIIRS also happened to capture a moonlit Hurricane Sandy touching down in New Jersey on the evening of October 29th. Read more about the pictures and the video → here. ←
Courtesy of NASA.
Courtesy of NASA.
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