
Earth at Night: Our Planet in Brilliant Darkness provides majestic images of space orbits during nighttime that are as fantastically beautiful as any image of Earth by day. NASA satellites bring to life the beauty of Earth from space through a collection of photographic images covering most of Earth’s more illuminated regions and cities. You’ll be amazed by natural phenomena such as auroras, wildfires, phytoplankton, and volcanic eruptions.
Look for these fantastic photographs:
- Earth at Night
- Progression of the Rim Fire—Yosemite, California
- Aurora Borealis—Midwestern United States
- Airglow—Australia
- And more!
Contents Foreword x
Preface xii
Acknowledgments xiv
An Introduction to Nightlights 2
Blue Marble Becomes Black Marble 4
Vision and Remote Sensing 6
Seeing Is Sensing 6
What Is Light? 6
Remote Sensing 8
Orbiting Tools to Observe Nightlights 10
Improvements in ISS Photography—Northeastern United States 16
Coming into Focus—Cairo, Egypt18
Where Do Nightlights Come From? 20
Beyond City Lights—Java Sea 22
Moonlight, Old Lights, and New Lights—Gulf of Mexico 24
A World of Change 26
Nature’s Light Shows 28
Fires 32
Tracking Fires Day and Night—Northwest United States 32
Progression of the Rim Fire—Yosemite, California 35
Spreading Like Wildfire—Yakutia, Siberia, Russia 36
City Lights, or Not—Australia 39
Billowing Smoke in the Night—Idaho and Montana 40
Fires Light Up Mount Vesuvius—Naples, Italy 42
Volcanoes 44
The Infrared Glows of Kilauea’s Lava Flows—Hawaii 44
Mount Tongariro Erupts—New Zealand 46
vi Earth at Night Nighttime Glow at Mount Etna—Italy 48
Mount Etna Erupts—Italy 50
Moonlight and Moonglint 52
Moon Phases—Persian Gulf 52
Moonglint—Elba and the Mediterranean 54
Clouds and Lightning 56
Marine Layer Clouds—California 56
A Blizzard by Moonlight—Northeastern United States 59
Sensing Lightning from the ISS—Saudi Arabia and Bolivia 60
Lightning—Japan 62
Elusive Sprite Captured from the ISS—Southeast Asia 64
The Electric Eye of Cyclone Bansi—Indian Ocean 67
Snow and Ice 68
Snow Cover—Great Lakes Region, United States 68
Polar Darkness—The Arctic 71
Auroras 72
Aurora Borealis—Midwestern United States 72
Looking Down at the Aurora—Northern Hemisphere 74
Aurora Lights Up the Night—Antarctica 76
Airglow 78
Airglow—Australia 78
Night Colors—Russia 81
Waves in Airglow—Texas 82
Human Light Sources 84
Urban Structure 86
Constrained by Geography—Reno, Nevada 86
Grid of City Blocks—Phoenix, Arizona 88
Unpopulated Slopes of an Active Volcano—Naples, Italy 90
Dazzling Coastlines—Italy 92
Living on Fertile Land—Nile River, Egypt 94
vii
The Winding Seine River and the City of Light—Paris, France 96
Lighting Paths to Oil—Qatar 98
Snaking Along Canyon Cliffs—Haifa, Israel 100
Differences in Socio-Economic Strategies—Korean Peninsula 102
Now You See Them, Now You Don’t—Argentina 104
A Well-Lit Border, Indus River—Pakistan 106
Urban Development 108
Lighting Paths—Across the United States 108
The Brightest Spot on Earth—Las Vegas, Nevada 110
Rapid Urban Growth—Shanghai, China 112
Turning Up the Lights—India 114
Olympics at Night—Sochi, Russia 116
Power Outages 118
Hurricane Maria 118
Hurricane Maria into the Night—Puerto Rico 118
Lights Out—Puerto Rico 120
Hurricane Matthew 122
Hurricane Matthew Brushes Florida Coast—Southeast United States 122
Lights Out After Matthew—Southeast United States 124
Hurricane Michael 126
Florida Slammed by Hurricane Michael—Florida Panhandle 126
Michael Churns at Night—Florida Panhandle 127
Lights Out in Michael’s Wake—Florida Panhandle 128
Hurricane Sandy 130
Overnight View of Hurricane Sandy—Eastern United States 130
Blackout—New Jersey and New York 132
Other Power Outages 134
Lights Out in Hatteras—North Carolina 134
Rare Derecho Causes Power Outages—Washington, D.C. 136
Earthquake Aftermath—Nepal 138
viii
Earth at Night Effects of War 140
Conflict in the Middle East—Syria 140
Nightlights Change in the Middle East—Syria and Iraq 142
Mining 144
Shale Revolution: As Clear as Night and Day—South Texas 144
Ten Percent of the World’s Gas Flares in One Spot—Nigeria 146
Gas Flares in Bahía de Campeche—Gulf of Mexico 148
Gas Drilling—North Dakota 150
Connection Between Gas Flaring and Arctic Pollution—North Dakota 152
Sea-Going Vessels 154
Something Fishy in the Atlantic Night—South Atlantic Ocean 154
Korea and the Yellow Sea—Korean Peninsula 156
Holiday Lights 158
Bursting with Holiday Energy—United States 158
The Lights of Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr—Middle East 164
Epilogue 168
Appendix A: NASA’s Black Marble Product Suite 170
Appendix B: Making a Cloud-Free, Global, Earth-at-Night Image Using NASA’s Black Marble Product Suite 173
Appendix C: OLS and VIIRS Technical Details 176
Appendix D: Additional Credits and Information 179
Space enthusiasts and scientists may be interested in this work. Educators focused on space, environmental, science and astrophysics may find these illuminating images helpful in their lessons. Students at all levels may enjoy the rich imagery, photography, and diagrams included in this highly graphic resource about images of earth from space.
Product Details
- Space
- Earth
- Nightlight
- Darkness
- Moonlight
- Volcanoes
- Fires and Power Outages