This low-light sensor can distinguish night lights tens to hundreds of times better than previous satellites. This new space-based view of Earth light sensors to observe dim signals such as city lights, auroras, wildfires, and reflected moonlight. The reason the lights are so prominent around the island in this image is because the time the data were collected (i.e., May during new moon) overlaps with one of the peak fishing seasons for this region-spring, during new moon. One such cluster surrounds Jeju Island, South Korea-a popular tourist destination-where fishermen shine torchlights on the water to attract squid, a traditional Jeju food. Clusters of light out at sea-particularly in and around the Korean Straight-are produced by the lights from hundreds of fishing boats engaged in night fishing. It is also the most populous metropolitan area in the world. For example, Tokyo, Japan, located on the southeastern side of the main island, is the brightest location on the image. Here the monthly composite image has been combined with a cloud-free MODIS image that has been modified to appear more “night-like” to highlight the Earth’s land surface.Ĭity lights make several urban centers easily discernable. NOAA’s Earth Observation Group creates monthly composite nighttime images from the VIIRS day-night band (DNB) by combining cloud-free data from nights without moonlight (i.e., during the new moon phase). Data acquired by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite were used to create this nighttime view of Japan and the Korean Peninsula in May 2014.
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