Pictures Of Earth At Night

Pictures of Earth at night made by NASA's Suomi NPP satellite.

Earth’s city lights is a composite assembled from data acquired by the Suomi NPP satellite. The data was acquired over nine days in April 2012 and 13 days in October 2012. It took 312 orbits to get a clear shot of every parcel of Earth's land surface and islands. (Source: Nasa)

Composite map of the world assembled from data acquired by
the Suomi NPP satellite in April and October 2012.

Europe and the Middle East

United States

The Suomi NPP Satellite

Over the last decade NASA launched a series of satellites that offer an unparalleled view of Earth from space. That series, known collectively as NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS), has provided striking new insights into many aspects of Earth, including its clouds, oceans, vegetation, ice, and atmosphere. However, as the EOS satellites age, a new generation of Earth-observing satellites are poised to take over.

The Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership represents a critical first step in building this next-generation satellite system. Suomi NPP orbits the Earth about 14 times each day and observe nearly the entire surface. The NPP satellite continues key data records that are critical for climate change science.

The Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership spacecraft lifted off at 5:48 a.m. EDT on Oct. 28, 2011, to begin its Earth observation mission. The spacecraft was lifted into orbit by a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket launching from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. The launch capped a flawless countdown.(source: GSFC)