5 December 2012

NASA Releases Incredibly-Detailed Photos Of Earth At Night





Scientists at NASA have unveiled an unprecedented new look of planet Earth at night.



The ‘Black Marble’ series features dazzling, cloud-free images of city lights, raging wildfires and colourful auroras—that were constructed using a new NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellite.



The satellite’s new sensor—the day-night band of the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiomter Suite (VIIRS)—is “sensitive enough to detect the nocturnal glow produced by Earth’s atmosphere and the light from a single ship in the sea,” according to NASA.



Check out some of the shots below:





















[via NASA, images via Flickr]