Earth at night, 2016

The earth at night, 2016. (NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens, using Suomi NPP VIIRS data from Miguel Román, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center)

Many of us would give just about anything to have a gander at the earth from spaceand new photos released by NASA of our planet at night are stunning, leaving one longing for more.

The first thing that captures the eye is were concentrated in 2016 when the photos were captured by theSuomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership(NPP) satellite.

According to a press release, NPP is equipped with a low-light sensor that distinguishesnight lights with of lighting levels (dynamic range) than before.

The satellite launched in October 2011 also carries a Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), which can observe dim light down to the scale of an isolated highway lamp or fishing boat, which is particularly useful for weather forecasting. For example, VIIRS was able to detectpower outages in the aftermath of, which struck the Caribbean and thesouthern United States in September 2016.

Since the launch of the satellite, researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NASA have committed to capturingimages of the earth each night to document the human footprint and where it leads.

“Nothing tells us more about the spread of humans across the earth than city lights,” Chris Elvidge, a NOAA scientist, said in the release.