Earth's Cities at Night: Photos From Space

Chicago Storms by Ron Garan

Ron Garan

Another shot #FromSpace Although it was a beautiful night in #Chicago just to the West big storms!

Ron Garan Photo Over Iran

Ron Garan

Another shot From Space yesterday just after sunset over Iran Can u find Syria, Baghdad Black Sea and Tbilisi ?

Light Pollution in 1995

NASA

This satellite photo taken back in 1995 shows the extent of nighttime lights across the planet.

The Latest Fashion

ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment and Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, Johnson Space Center

Monday, March 28, 2011: The city of Milan, Italy appears as a cluster of lights in this photograph, with brilliant white lights indicating the historic city center where the Duomo di Milano (Milan Cathedral) stands. The Expedition 26 crew aboard the International Space Station took this picture on February 22, 2011.

--Tom Chao

Find Myself a City to Live in

NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth

Friday, May 27, 2011: This image taken by the Expedition 27 crew aboard the International Space Station shows the Atlantic Seaboard Conurbation (ASC). A conurbation refers to a region comprised of cities, towns, and urban areas that have merged together. This image shows all of the ASC except for Boston, Mass. At upper right lies New York City, N.Y., then to the left appears Philadelphia, Pa., Baltimore, Md., and Washington, D.C. On the left-hand border lies Richmond, Va., with Norfolk, Va. near at the bottom, although neither is included in the ASC.

—Tom Chao

The Solar Windy City

Soichi Noguchi

Astronaut Soichi Noguchi snapped this picture of auroras over North America from the International Space Station. "Astro_Soichi," as he is known on Twitter, posted it to the internet on May 8, 2010. Lake Michigan is the dark area outlined by lights. Chicago, Illinois is represented by the bright concentration of lights adjoining the lake.

Ron Garan Last Day in Space

Ron Garan/NASA

This picture shows astronaut Ron Garan on his last day at the International Space Station before returning to Earth in September 2011. He posted the picture on Twitter, writing "That's me in the cupola of the International Space Station off the coast of Australia taking my last of over 25,000 pics that I still want to share w/ everyone."

Earth's City Lights: 2003 Satellite View

NASA/Robert Simmon/DMSP

This image shows Earth’s human-generated nighttime lights for the calendar year 2003, based on observations by the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Operational Line Scanner. In this image, oceans appear black, landmasses appear in varying shades of blue, and lights appear yellow-white. Because these images focus on human impact, they do not include other (natural) light sources. Besides assembling cloud-free images, data visualizers carefully excluded sunlight, moonlight, and light from the Northern Hemisphere aurora.

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