United States of America at night

epa03497688 Handout NASA image acquired 18 April – 23 October 2012 and released. 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. NASA states that 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. 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. EPA/NASA/HO +++(c) dpa – Bildfunk+++