This is a classic composite picture which NASA first published in 2002, and which they’ve just put up again at Astronomy Picture of the Day.
Click on the link for a higher resolution image, resize your browser window as large as it will go, and zoom in. See which features our night-time illuminations highlight. I’m particularly impressed by the clear representation of the way that population centres in Egypt cling to the course of the Nile.
More information about how the image was generated is here, along with an even higher-res version where the grid-layout of settlements in the plain-states of the USA can be clearly discerned.
[Crossposted at Larvatus Prodeo]
Categories: Science
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