NASA has released a new global map of the Earth at night which shows stunning pictures of India. NASA scientists are trying to see if the night lights imagery can be updated more frequently - perhaps even daily. Doing so would drastically change how we forecast weather, improve natural disaster responses and even help track the effects of war.
Take a look at these two images of India showing how cities have grown and populations have spread in the past few years. This before-and-after comparison below shows composite nighttime views of India and surrounding areas in 2012 and 2016. The difference in colour truly shows how India is far more lit in 2016 than in 2012. It does like PM Modi's ambitious rural electrication project has made significant headway in grassroot regions and we have 'real NASA' pictures.
India in 2012
India in 2016
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Since researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA released a new Earth at night map in 2012, Roman and teammates at NASA's Earth Observing Satellite Data and Information System (EOSDIS) have been working to integrate nighttime data into NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS) and Worldview mapping tools.
The new global composite map of night lights was observed in 2016. The NASA group has examined the different ways that light is radiated, scattered and reflected by land, atmospheric and ocean surfaces.
The principal challenge in nighttime satellite imaging is accounting for the phases of the moon, which constantly varies the amount of light shining on Earth, though in predictable ways.
Likewise, seasonal vegetation, clouds, aerosols, snow and ice cover, and even faint atmospheric emissions (such as airglow and auroras) change the way light is observed in different parts of the world.
The new maps were produced with data from all months of each year. The team wrote code that picked the clearest night views each month, ultimately combining moonlight-free and moonlight-corrected data.
Suomi NPP observes nearly every location on Earth at roughly 1:30 pm and 1:30 am (local time) each day, observing the planet in vertical 3,000-kilometre strips from pole to pole. Suomi NPP data is freely available to scientists within minutes to hours of acquisition.
Armed with more accurate nighttime environmental products, the NASA team is now automating the processing so that users will be able to view nighttime imagery within hours of acquisition. This has the potential to aid short-term weather forecasting and disaster response.
