Earth at Night (Black Marble) 2012 Color Maps v2 - related image preview

3600 x 1800
749 KB - JPEG

Earth at Night (Black Marble) 2012 Color Maps v2 - related geotiff image preview placeholder

3600 x 1800
4 MB - GeoTIFF

Earth at Night (Black Marble) 2012 Color Maps v2 - related image preview

13500 x 6750
8 MB - JPEG

Earth at Night (Black Marble) 2012 Color Maps v2 - related geotiff image preview placeholder

13500 x 6750
61 MB - GeoTIFF

Earth at Night (Black Marble) 2012 Color Maps v2 - related image preview

21600 x 21600
29 MB - JPEG

Earth at Night (Black Marble) 2012 Color Maps v2 - related geotiff image preview placeholder

21600 x 21600
308 MB - GeoTIFF

Earth at Night (Black Marble) 2012 Color Maps v2 - related image preview

21600 x 21600
7 MB - JPEG

Earth at Night (Black Marble) 2012 Color Maps v2 - related geotiff image preview placeholder

21600 x 21600
163 MB - GeoTIFF

Earth at Night (Black Marble) 2012 Color Maps v2 - related image preview

21600 x 21600
28 MB - JPEG

Earth at Night (Black Marble) 2012 Color Maps v2 - related geotiff image preview placeholder

21600 x 21600
297 MB - GeoTIFF

Earth at Night (Black Marble) 2012 Color Maps v2 - related image preview

21600 x 21600
20 MB - JPEG

Earth at Night (Black Marble) 2012 Color Maps v2 - related geotiff image preview placeholder

21600 x 21600
259 MB - GeoTIFF

Earth at Night (Black Marble) 2012 Color Maps v2 - related image preview

21600 x 21600
54 MB - JPEG

Earth at Night (Black Marble) 2012 Color Maps v2 - related geotiff image preview placeholder

21600 x 21600
479 MB - GeoTIFF

Earth at Night (Black Marble) 2012 Color Maps v2 - related image preview

21600 x 21600
13 MB - JPEG

Earth at Night (Black Marble) 2012 Color Maps v2 - related geotiff image preview placeholder

21600 x 21600
220 MB - GeoTIFF

Earth at Night (Black Marble) 2012 Color Maps v2 - related image preview

21600 x 21600
37 MB - JPEG

Earth at Night (Black Marble) 2012 Color Maps v2 - related geotiff image preview placeholder

21600 x 21600
371 MB - GeoTIFF

Earth at Night (Black Marble) 2012 Color Maps v2 - related image preview

21600 x 21600
14 MB - JPEG

Earth at Night (Black Marble) 2012 Color Maps v2 - related geotiff image preview placeholder

21600 x 21600
227 MB - GeoTIFF

Earth at Night (Black Marble) 2012 Color Maps v2

Satellite images of Earth at night—often referred to as “night lights”—have been a curiosity for the public and a tool of fundamental research for at least 25 years. They have provided a broad, beautiful picture, showing how humans have shaped the planet and lit up the darkness. Produced every decade or so, such maps have spawned hundreds of pop-culture uses and dozens of economic, social science, and environmental research projects.

These images show Earth’s night lights as observed in 2012 and represent a second version of the Black Marble produced with 2012 data. The data were reprocessed with new compositing techniques that select the best cloud-free nights in each month over each land mass.

The images are available as JPEG and GeoTIFF, in three different resolutions: 0.1 degrees (3600x1800), 3km (13500x6750), and 500m (86400x43200). The 500m global map is divided into tiles (21600x21600) according to a gridding scheme.

Read more about these data and the processing used to produce the imagery:


NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens, using Suomi NPP VIIRS data from Miguel Román, NASA GSFC.

Published May 16, 2019
Data acquired 2012

Source:
Suomi NPP > VIIRS
Collections:
Earth at Night
Visible Earth