Earth at night

NASA has released what it’s calling the clearest view ever achieved of the earth at night.

NASA calls it “the Black Marble”. It comes from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument on the Suomi National Polar-orbiting satellite. The space agency says it can remove stray light and get better look at the imprint made by human activity.

You are here (probably).

For reference, Duluth is upper right in the above photo. Sioux City is lower left. Rochester lower right (I think).

Do you see much difference compared to 2012, the last time NASA provided an image like this? Me neither.

NASA says it’s possible to detect the light of just one building now.

Heavily pixelated, but check out the Oil Patch 2016…

…vs. the Oil Patch of 2012.

You can find all of the images here. If you find some areas of interesting comparison, go ahead and upload them in the comments section below.