File:City Lights of the United States 2012.jpg

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Summary

Description	English: NASA image acquired April 18 - October 23, 2012 This image of the United States of America at night is a composite assembled from data acquired by the Suomi NPP satellite in April and October 2012. The image was made possible by the new satellite’s “day-night band” of the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), which detects light in a range of wavelengths from green to near-infrared and uses filtering techniques to observe dim signals such as city lights, gas flares, auroras, wildfires, and reflected moonlight. Instrument: Suomi NPP - VIIRS Projection: Albers equal-area conic, WGS84 datum, standard parallels 29.5°N and 44.5°N, central meridian 96°W, origin latitude 23°N On this image one pixel is (737.19 × 737.19)m²
Date	5 December 2012
Source	http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=79800 for GeoTIFF original file. https://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/8247975848/in/set-72157632172101342/ for quicker access to the jpeg
Author	NASA Earth Observatory
Other versions	File:City Lights 2012 - Flat map.jpg


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Licensing

	This file is in the public domain in the United States because it was solely created by NASA. NASA copyright policy states that "NASA material is not protected by copyright unless noted". (See Template:PD-USGov, NASA copyright policy page or JPL Image Use Policy.)
	Warnings: Use of NASA logos, insignia and emblems is restricted per U.S. law 14 CFR 1221. The NASA website hosts a large number of images from the Soviet/Russian space agency, and other non-American space agencies. These are not necessarily in the public domain. Materials based on Hubble Space Telescope data may be copyrighted if they are not explicitly produced by the STScI.[1] See also {{PD-Hubble}} and {{Cc-Hubble}}. The SOHO (ESA & NASA) joint project implies that all materials created by its probe are copyrighted and require permission for commercial non-educational use. [2] Images featured on the Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) web site may be copyrighted. [3] The National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) site has been known to host copyrighted content. Its photo gallery FAQ states that all of the images in the photo gallery are in the public domain "Unless otherwise noted."

File history

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	Date/Time	Thumbnail	Dimensions	User	Comment
current	19:44, 6 December 2012		6,646 × 4,430 (5.46 MB)	Benh	User created page with UploadWizard

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Image title	NASA image acquired April 18 - October 23, 2012This image of the United States of America at night is a composite assembled from data acquired by the Suomi NPP satellite in April and October 2012. The image was made possible by the new satellite’s “day-night band” of the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), which detects light in a range of wavelengths from green to near-infrared and uses filtering techniques to observe dim signals such as city lights, gas flares, auroras, wildfires, and reflected moonlight.“Nighttime light is the most interesting data that I’ve had a chance to work with,” says Chris Elvidge, who leads the Earth Observation Group at NOAA’s National Geophysical Data Center. “I’m always amazed at what city light images show us about human activity.” His research group has been approached by scientists seeking to model the distribution of carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels and to monitor the activity of commercial fishing fleets. Biologists have examined how urban growth has fragmented animal habitat. Elvidge even learned once of a study of dictatorships in various parts of the world and how nighttime lights had a tendency to expand in the dictator’s hometown or province.Named for satellite meteorology pioneer Verner Suomi, NPP flies over any given point on Earth's surface twice each day at roughly 1:30 a.m. and p.m. The polar-orbiting satellite flies 824 kilometers (512 miles) above the surface, sending its data once per orbit to a ground station in Svalbard, Norway, and continuously to local direct broadcast users distributed around the world. Suomi NPP is managed by NASA with operational support from NOAA and its Joint Polar Satellite System, which manages the satellite's ground system.NASA Earth Observatory image by Robert Simmon, using Suomi NPP VIIRS data provided courtesy of Chris Elvidge (NOAA National Geophysical Data Center). Suomi NPP is the result of a partnership between NASA, NOAA, and the Department of Defense. Caption by Mike Carlowicz.Instrument: Suomi NPP - VIIRSCredit:<b><a href="http://www.earthobservatory.nasa.gov/" rel="nofollow">NASA Earth Observatory</a></b><b>Click here to view all of the <a href="http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/NightLights/" rel="nofollow"> Earth at Night 2012 images </a></b><b>Click here to <a href="http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=79800 " rel="nofollow"> read more </a> about this image </b> <b><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelines.html"rel="nofollow">NASA image use policy.</a></b><b><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/home/index.html" rel="nofollow">NASA Goddard Space Flight Center</a></b>enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.<b>Follow us on<a href="http://twitter.com/NASA_GoddardPix" rel="nofollow">Twitter</a></b><b>Like us on<a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Greenbelt-MD/NASA-Goddard/395013845897?ref=tsd" rel="nofollow">Facebook</a></b><b>Find us on<a href="http://instagram.com/nasagoddard?vm=grid" rel="nofollow">Instagram</a></b>
Width	6,646 px
Height	4,430 px
Bits per component	8 8 8
Compression scheme	LZW
Pixel composition	RGB
Orientation	Normal
Number of components	3
Horizontal resolution	72 dpi
Vertical resolution	72 dpi
Data arrangement	chunky format
Software used	Adobe Photoshop CS5 Macintosh
File change date and time	12:51, 5 December 2012
Color space	sRGB
Date and time of digitizing	14:58, 29 July 2005
Date metadata was last modified	07:51, 5 December 2012
Urgency	1
Unique ID of original document	xmp.did:048011740720681188C6CC0A07FF2C97
IIM version	4

File:City Lights of the United States 2012.jpg

Summary

Licensing

Captions

Items portrayed in this file

depicts

world

Earth

night

copyright status

public domain

inception

5 December 2012

Commons quality assessment

Wikimedia Commons featured picture

media type

image/jpeg

checksum

ca811f9761f44e56913586e361dace393f36191c

data size

5,726,178 byte

height

4,430 pixel

width

6,646 pixel

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