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Satellites Capture City Lights Burning Brighter During the Holidays

Holiday Lights Shine Brighter

City lights shine brighter during the holidays in the United States when compared with the rest of the year, as shown using a new analysis of daily data from the NASA-NOAA Suomi NPP satellite. Dark green pixels are areas where lights are 50 percent brighter, or more, during December. (Credit: Jesse Allen, NASA’s Earth Observatory) 

Nighttime city lights shine anywhere from 20 to 50 percent brighter during the Christmas, New Year's and Ramadan holiday season when compared to light output during the rest of the year, according to a new analysis of satellite images from NOAA and NASA.
In some Middle Eastern cities, the agencies found, the brightness of city lights at night is more than 50 percent greater than the rest of the year.
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The new data comes from the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite, a joint effort between NASA and NOAA, which operates many of the weather and climate observation satellites that circle the globe.
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Suomi NPP carries an instrument called the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite to detect the glow from streetlights, buildings and other structures in cities and towns around the world. The newly released photos above use VIIRS imaging and an algorithm that filters out moonlight, clouds and particles in the air to ensure that the light they show is due to the lights on the ground.