Suomi satellite reveals Earth’s dark side

The Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite captured this nighttime image of the United States. Photo: NASA A remarkable new view of the dark side of our planet from space released today by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is just a peek at the nighttime capabilities of the agencies' newest weather satellite, the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership. Named for the father of satellite meteorology, University of Wisconsin-Madison Verner Suomi , the Suomi NPP satellite is taking images of unprecedented quality from orbit 500 miles above Earth — especially at night. The Day Night Band, which is the instrument responsible for the "black marble" picture — released today (Dec. 5, 2012) at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union — is part of the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (or VIIRS) onboard Suomi NPP. "It can observe dim light down to the scale of a single ship on the ocean at night," says William Straka, a researcher at Madison's Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies , "or the dull glow of the aurora lighting up the night sky." The predecessor to VIIRS was an Air Force defense satellite. Suomi NPP makes high-resolution nighttime images using the visible spectrum of light accessible to the civilian science community at large, which means they can be used in a variety of applications.