The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instruments aboard the joint NASA/NOAA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership ( Suomi NPP) and NOAA-20 satellites provide global daily measurements of nocturnal visible and near-infrared (NIR) light that are suitable for Earth system science and applications studies.

Remote sensing of nighttime light emissions offers a unique perspective for investigations into some of these human behaviors. As Earth’s population continues to grow, remote sensing data offer a view from space of human behaviors, whether from changing the landscape through deforestation and urbanization or modifying air quality through increases in pollutants. A majority of this growth will occur in developing countries.

This is equal to adding a city the size of Providence, Rhode Island, every day for the next 41 years. NASA Earth Observatory image.īetween now and 2050, the world’s urban population is expected to grow by 2.5 billion, an addition of about 170,000 people a day, according to estimates by the United Nations. The data were acquired over nine days in April 2012 and 13 days in October 2012. Global view of Earth's city lights from a composite assembled from Day/Night data acquired by the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) satellite.

Nasa earth viewer