Saturn’s Satan – A monster hurricane with an eye of over 2,000km ..#NASA #Saturn


Nasa spacecraft captures stunning image of a cyclone at Saturn’s North Pole

1752463444In an undated in this false-color image from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft and provided by NASA/JPL shows stunning views of a monster hurricane at Saturn’s North Pole. The eye of the cyclone is an enormous 1,250 miles across. That’s 20 times larger than the typical eye of a hurricane here on Earth. The hurricane is believed to have been there for years.This image is among the first sunlit views of Saturn’s north pole captured by Cassini’s imaging cameras. (AP)

Nasa’s Cassini spacecraft has captured stunning views of a monster hurricane at Saturn’s North Pole.

The eye of the cyclone is an enormous 1,250 miles (2,010 kilometers) across. That’s 20 times larger than the typical eye of a hurricane here on Earth. And it’s spinning super-fast. Clouds at the outer edge of the storm are whipping around at 330 mph (531 kph).

The hurricane is parked at Saturn’s North Pole and relies on water vapor to keep it churning. It’s believed to have been there for years. Cassini only recently had a chance to observe the vortex in visible light.

Scientists hope to learn more about Earth’s hurricanes by studying this whopper at Saturn.

Cassini was launched from Cape Canaveral in 1997 and arrived at Saturn in 2004.

World’s Smallest Militaries


Apart from safeguarding a country or a state, the military force is used for international security and strategic purposes. The military forces are classified as largest and smallest on the basis of the active military personnel.

 

#1 Palestine:

The military force of Palestine includes the Palestine Liberation Army and the Palestinian National Security Forces, also referred to as the presidential guard, which are the paramilitary forces of the Palestinian National Authority. The state of Palestine has the smallest military force in the world. On the whole, it has 56, 000 personnel serving in its military which includes zero reserve military force and manpower of 56, 000 in the paramilitary force too.

# 2 Panama

The Panamanian Public Forces are the national security forces of Panama. It maintains forces, including armed Police and Security forces, and small air and maritime forces. They are assigned with law enforcement and can perform limited military actions. Panama has one of the smallest military forces in the world with around 12,000 military personnel. The country formed its military after the U.S. invasion in 1989. It has zero active and reserve military forces and has 12,000 personnel in paramilitary force.

# 3 Costa Rica

Costa Rica, which is located in Central America has a population of over 4 million, but maintains a small force for law enforcement and foreign peacekeeping. It doesn’t have a permanent standing army and consists of around 9, 800 paramilitary personnel. The country doesn’t have an active and reserve military force. José Figueres Ferrer, President of Costa Rica abolished the military of Costa Rico on December 1, 1948 after the victory in the civil war in the same year.

# 4 Haiti

Haiti is the first independent nation of Latin America and the Caribbean. Currently, the country has no regular military. The former Haitian Armed Forces were demobilized.  The current forces of the country consist of Haitian National Police, which consists of several paramilitary units, highly trained SWAT team and the Haitian Coast Guard. The military forces has a total of 2,000 military personnel and since it doesn’t have an active and reserve force, it maintains a total of 2, 000 paramilitary personnel.

# 5 Mauritius

Mauritius doesn’t have a standing army. It has a total of 2, 000 military personnel and 2,000 paramilitary personnel. Its military expenditure generally amounts to 0.1percent of its GDP in a year. Most of the military, police and security functions are carried out by the active personnel under the Commissioner of Police. The National Police Force is responsible for domestic law enforcement. The Special Mobile Force (SMF) and the National Coast Guard are the two paramilitary units in the country.

# 6 Vanuatu

Vanuatu, officially known as Republic of Vanuatu is an island nation situated in the South Pacific Ocean. The military force of Vanuatu was founded in 1980, and has a total of only 300 military personnel. Everyone is a part of the country’s paramilitary force as it doesn’t have an active and reserve military force.

# 7 Monaco

Monaco is known to be the world’s second smallest nation after Vatican. It has a very limited military and depends on its neighbor France, for defense. Currently, it has a military comprising of 263 personnel. Since it doesn’t have an active and reserve military personnel, it consists of only 263 personnel in paramilitary force.

# 8 Iceland

Iceland’s defense forces consist of the Icelandic Coast Guard, which patrols Icelandic waters and airspace. Besides, it consists of National Commissioner’s National security and Special Forces units. Situated in North Europe, the country is the only member in the NATO without any standing army. It has zero reserve military personnel where as paramilitary force consists of 130 personnel which is the total strength of its overall military.

# 9 Saint Kitts & Nevis

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Saint Kitts and Nevis is a two-island state in the Leeward Islands in West Indies. It is the smallest sovereign state in America in terms of area and population.  Currently, the state has an infantry unit and a maritime unit. The state’s total military consists of 310 personnel out of which 70 personnel belong to the active military force while reserve military reserve force consist of 130 personnel. The paramilitary force consists of 119 personnel.

# 10 Antigua & Barbuda

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The military force of Antigua & Barbuda is also known as the Royal Antigua and Barbuda Defence force. It is the world’s smallest military consisting of 245 personnel serving the state. The military force consists of 170 active military personnel, 75 personnel in the Reserve force but there’s no paramilitary force.

10 Most Expensive Single Objects in the World


10. Oresund Bridge (Cost:$6 Billion)

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The Øresund or Öresund Bridge  is a combined twin-track railroad and four-lane highway bridge-tunnel across the Öresund strait. The Øresund Bridge connects Sweden and Denmark, and it is the longest highway and railroad bridge in Europe. The Øresund Bridge also connects two major Metropolitan Areas: those of the Danish capital city of Copenhagen and the major Swedish city of Malmö. Furthermore, the Øresund Bridge connects the highway network of Scandinavia with those of Central and Western Europe.

  • Official name: Øresundsbroen, Öresundsbron
  • Carries: Four lanes of European route E20 Double track Oresund Railway Line
  • Locale: Copenhagen, Denmark and Malmö, Sweden
  • Designer: Georg Rotne
  • Design: Cable-stayed bridge
  • Total length: 7,845 metres (25,738 ft)
  • Width: 23.5 metres (77.1 ft)
  • Longest span: 490 metres (1,608 ft)
  • Cost: $6 Billion
  • Country: Denmark, Sweden
  • Year of completion: 2000

9.Large Hadron Collider (Cost: $6 Billion)

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The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world’s largest and highest-energy particle accelerator. It is expected that it will address themost fundamental questions of physics, advancing our understanding of the deepest laws of nature.

The LHC lies in a tunnel 27 kilometres (17 mi) in circumference, as much as 175 metres (574 ft) beneath the Franco-Swiss border nearGeneva, Switzerland. This synchrotron is designed to collide opposing particle beams of either protons at an energy of 7 teraelectronvolts(1.12 microjoules) per particle, or lead nuclei at an energy of 574 TeV (92.0 µJ) per nucleus. The term hadron refers to particles composed of quarks.

  • Country: Switzerland
  • Year of completion: 2008
  • Cost: $6 Billion

 

8. ITER – Experimental Fusion Reactor (Cost: $6.5 Billion)

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ITER - International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor is an international tokamak (magnetic confinement fusion) research/engineering project that could help to make the transition from today’s studies of plasmaphysics to future electricity-producing fusion power plants. It builds on research done with devices such as DIII-D,EAST, ADITYA, KSTAR, TFTR, ASDEX Upgrade, Joint European Torus, JT-60, Tore Supra and T-15.

  • Country: China, European Union, India, Japan, Russia, South Korea, United States
  • Year of completion: 2016 (expected)
  • Cost: $6.5 Billion

7. Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant(Cost: $7.2 Billion)

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The Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant is on Olkiluoto Island, which is on the shore of the Gulf of Bothnia in the municipality of Eurajoki in western Finland. It is one of Finland’s two nuclear power plants, the other being the two-unitVVER Loviisa Nuclear Power Plant.

The Olkiluoto plant consists of two BWRs with 860 MWe each. These were supplied by ASEA-Atom, now a part of ABB Group. The plant is operated by Teollisuuden Voima, a subsidiary of Pohjolan Voima. Unit three, the first EPR (European Pressurized water Reactor) is under construction, but various problems with workmanship and supervision have created costly delays, and been the subject of an inquiry by the Finnish nuclear regulator STUK.A  license for a fourth reactor to be built at the site was granted by the Finnish parliament in July 2010.

  • Country: Finland
  • Year of completion : 2012 (expected)
  • Cost: $7.2 Billion

6. Alaska Pipeline (Cost: $8 Billion)

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The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS), includes the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, 11 pump stations, several hundred miles of feeder pipelines, and the Valdez Marine Terminal. It is commonly called the Alaska Pipeline, Trans-Alaska Pipeline, or Alyeska Pipeline, (or the Pipeline as referred to in Alaska), but those terms technically apply only to the 800.302 miles (1,287.961 km) of the pipleline with the diameter of 48 inches (122 cm) that conveys oil from Prudhoe Bay, to Valdez, Alaska. The crude oil pipeline is privately owned by the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company.

The pipeline was built between 1974 and 1977 after the 1973 oil crisis caused a sharp rise in oil prices in the United States. This rise made exploration of the Prudhoe Bay oil field economically feasible. Environmental, legal, and political debates followed the discovery of oil at Prudhoe Bay in 1968, and the pipeline was built only after the oil crisis provoked the passage of legislation designed to remove legal challenges to the project.

  • Country :United State
  • Year of completion : 1977
  • Cost: $8 Billion

5. CVN-78 Class Aircraft Carrier (Cost: $8.1 Billion)

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The CVN-78-class aircraft carriers (or Ford-class) are a planned class of supercarrier for the United States Navy, intended to replace the current Nimitz-class carriers. The new vessels will use a hull design very similar to the Nimitz carriers, but many aspects of the design will be very different, implementing new technologies developed since the initial design of the previous class (such as the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System), as well as other design features intended to improve efficiency and running costs, including a reduced crew requirement. The first hull of the line will be named Gerald R. Ford, and will have the hull number CVN-78.

  • Country : United States
  • Year of completion : 2015 (expected)
  • Cost: $8.1 Billion

4. James Bay Project ( Cost: 13.8 billion)

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The James Bay Project refers to the construction by state-owned utility Hydro-Québec of a series of hydroelectric power stations on the La Grande River in northwestern Quebec, Canada, and the diversion of neighbouring rivers into the La Grande watershed. It is located between James Bay to the west and Labrador to the east and its waters flow from the Laurentian Plateau of the Canadian Shield. The project covers an area of the size of the State of New York and is one of the largest hydroelectric systems in the world. The project has cost upwards of $13 billion US to build and has an installed generating capacity of 16,000 megawatts, three times more than all of the power stations at Niagara Falls, eight times the power of Hoover Dam, and over twice the power of all eight reactors units at the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station, the largest in North America. If fully expanded to include all of the original planned dams, as well as the additional “James Bay II” projects, the system would generate a total of 27,000 MW, making it the largest hydroelectric system in the world.

  • Country : Canada
  • Year of completion : 1972
  • Cost: 13.8 billion

3. Three Gorges Dam(Cost: $25 Billion)

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The Three Gorges Dam is a hydroelectric dam that spans the Yangtze River by the town of Sandouping, located in the Yiling District of Yichang, in Hubei province, China. It is the world’s largest electricity-generating plant of any kind.

The dam body was completed in 2006. Except for a ship lift, the originally planned components of the project were completed on October 30, 2008 when the 26th generator in the shore plant began commercial operation. Each generator has a capacity of 700 MW.Six additional generators in the underground power plant are not expected to become fully operational until 2011.

  • Country : China
  • Year of completion : 2011 (expected)
  • Cost: $25 Billion

 

2. Itaipu Dam (Cost: $27 Billion)

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The Itaipu Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Paraná River located on the border between Brazil and Paraguay. The name “Itaipu” was taken from an isle that existed near the construction site. In the Guarani language, Itaipu means “the sound of a stone”. The American composer Philip Glass has also written a symphonic cantata named Itaipu, in honour of the structure.

The dam is the largest operating hydroelectric facility in terms of annual generating capacity, generating 94.7 TWh in 2008 and 91.6 TWh in 2009, while the annual generating capacity of the Three Gorges Dam was 80.8 TWh in 2008 and 79.4 TWh in 2009. It is a binational undertaking run by Brazil and Paraguay at the Paraná River on the border section between the two countries, 15 km (9.3 mi) north of the Friendship Bridge. The project ranges from Foz do Iguaçu, in Brazil, and Ciudad del Este in Paraguay, in the south to Guaíra and Salto del Guaíra in the north. The installed generation capacity of the plant is 14 GW, with 20 generating units providing 700 MW each with a hydraulic design head of 118 m. In 2008 the plant generated a record 94.68 billion kWh, supplying 90% of the energy consumed by Paraguay and 19% of that consumed by Brazil.

  • Country : Brazil, Paraguay
  • Year of completion : 1984
  • Cost: $27 Billion

1. International Space Station(Cost: $157 Billion)

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The International Space Station (ISS) is an internationally developed research facility that is being assembled in low Earth orbit. On-orbit construction of the station began in 1998 and is scheduled for completion by late 2011. The station is expected to remain in operation until at least 2015, and likely 2020. With a greater mass than that of any previous space station, the ISS can be seen from Earth with the naked eye, and is by far the largest artificial satellite that has ever orbited Earth. The ISS serves as a research laboratory that has a microgravity environment in which crews conduct experiments in biology, chemistry, human biology, physics, astronomy and meteorology. The station has a unique environment for the testing of the spacecraft systems that will be required for missions to the Moon and Mars.The ISS is operated by Expedition crews, with the station programme maintaining an uninterrupted human presence in space since the launch of Expedition 1 on 31 October 2000, a total of 9 years and 262 days.

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  • Country : Canada, European Space Agency, Japan, Russia, United States
  • Year of completion : 2011 (expected)
  • Cost: $157 Billion

GOOGLE DOODLE – Nicolaus Copernicus 540th Birthday


Commemorating the 540th birth anniversary of Nicolaus Copernicus, Google has posted a doodle which features an animated heliocentric model formulated by the Polish astronomer. Born on February 19, 1473, Nicolaus Copernicus was a Renaissance mathematician and astronomer.

The doodle shows the sun placed at the centre of the universe and has the Moon revolving around earth. It also depicts the then known five other planets – Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn – revolving around the sun.

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The second ‘O’ of the Google logo has been replaced with the sun, while the other letters of the word Google, written in Google’s characteristic Catull font, appear in the backdrop.

Best known for his treatise “On the Revolution of the Celestial Spheres,” Copernicus asserted that the earth revolved around the sun — contrary to the medieval belief that the earth was the center of the universe.

The theory was viewed with suspicion by the Church, and his treatise was not published until 1543, the year of his death.

Eventually the theory became the cornerstone for a future generation of scientists including Kepler and Galileo, but one of its ardent advocates, Italian cleric Giordano Bruno, was burned at the stake as a heretic in 1600.

The astronomer’s processional transfer began at Olsztyn Castle in February, with extended stops at several northern Poland sites with which he had been connected along the way, and did not arrive at Frombork until the middle of last week.

The Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus has been reburied in Poland in a lavish ceremony 467 years after his death.

During a Roman Catholic ritual, the remains were interred beneath the altar of Frombork Cathedral in northern Poland, where the astronomer had been the canon (head priest) and where he originally was buried in 1543. Copernicus died on 24 May 1543.

 

#Asteroid2012DA14 brushes past Earth


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Asteroid 2012 DA14 brushed past Earth early Saturday morning (IST) causing no damage to any satellite. It passed inside the ring of geosynchronous weather and communications satellites. ”The asteroid safely passed our planet 17,500 miles above Indonesia,” NASA said.

The newly discovered asteroid, about half the size of a football field, was tracked by NASA and various space centres, giving scientists a rare opportunity for close-up observations without launching a probe.

At its closest approach, which occurred at 1924 GMT or 0055 IST, the asteroid passed about 17,200 miles (27,520 km) above the planet traveling at 13 km per second, bringing it nearer than the networks of television and weather satellites that ring the planet.

Although Asteroid 2012 DA14 is the largest known object of its size to pass this close, scientists had predicted that there would be no chance of an impact.

Currently, DA14 matches Earth’s year-long orbit around the sun, but after today’s encounter its flight path will change, said astronomer Donald Yeomans, with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

“The close approach will perturb its orbit so that actually instead of having an orbital period of one year, it’ll lose a couple of months,” Yeomans said. “The Earth is going to put this one in an orbit that is considerably safer,” he said.

For scientists, DA14 presented a rare, albeit short, opportunity to study an asteroid close-up. In addition to trying to determine what minerals it contains, which is of potential commercial interest as well as scientific, astronomers want to learn more about the asteroid’s spin rate. The information not only will be useful to plotting DA14′s future visits but could help engineers develop techniques to thwart more threatening asteroids.

Indian Diplomatic Mail Delivered after 46 years


Indian Diplomatic Mail Delivered after 46 years

An Indian diplomatic bag was found 46 year later at the site of Air India aircraft’s crash site in the Alps near its highest Mont Blanc peak. The ill-fated passenger jet was on Mumbai-New York flight and everyone onboard was killed.

The mountaineers climbing on the Mont Blanc found the bag on one of the glaciers, the debris of the crashed aircraft, shoes and many other belongings of the passengers were strewn nearby.

The diplomatic bag was almost intact and was handed over to police in Chamonix town in the foothills. It is really difficult to find such things in the mountains. The diplomatic mail was finally delivered to its addressee – Indian mission in Switzerland, after 46 years.

New Earth-like planet spotted just 44 light years away


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A team of British and German space scientists using ground-based telescopes in Chile have spotted an Earth-like planet revolving around a Sun-type star just about 44 light years away from our solar system. The newly-discovered planet is believed to have atmospheric and other conditions that make it very similar to Earth. Of all the Earth-like planets found to date, it’s the closest to us.

More than 800 planets have been discovered outside the solar system over the past two decades, the majority of them being gas giants like Jupiter or solid planets too close to their stars and therefore too hot to support water.

The new planet is in the so-called “habitable zone”, which means that it may have water in a liquid state, and it also has an axis of rotation. The latter increases chances that it may support Earth-type life, says astrophysicist Sergei Smirnov of Russia’s Pulkovo Observatory.

“It’s important that its rotation should not be synchronous like that of our Moon, which is a reason why only one side of the Moon permanently faces Earth. And also, its revolution period or the length of year should differ from its rotation period or the length of day. This is an additional factor that helps sustain a biosphere. The light-and-shadow cycle and the temperature cycle are also very important. Humans are accustomed to a change of light. We can equally endure full darkness and blistering sun on a sand beach or snowfield. The same is true of cold and heat. Some living organisms can survive in a far wider range of temperatures.”

The new planet is 7 times the size of Earth. Higher gravity, though unlikely to affect the climate, could result in smaller forms of life, says Sergei Smirnov.

“Suppose, advanced forms of life emerge there, like elephants here on Earth. Then, in all probability, they would be smaller and flatter due to higher gravity. There would be no large species.”

Oleg Malkov, a laboratory head at the Russian Institute of Astronomy, believes that the presence of a biosphere does not necessarily require Earth-like conditions.

“There is only one type of life in the Universe that we know of – our own. Therefore, we are looking for planets that resemble Earth in mass, size, distance from the central star and all other parameters. Thus, chances that Earth-type life does exist are increasing. But life may have other forms.”

Sergei Smirnov agrees:

“The “habitability” theories are based on scientific discoveries made in the mid-20th century. Today, we should take a broader look at potential forms of life in various temperature ranges, and in planetary atmospheres, oceans and solid surfaces of various chemical composition. In the solar system, moons of giant planets are likelier to have some forms of life than Mars. For example, Europa the size of our Moon has a thick ice shell that can possibly hold the largest amounts of liquid water in the solar system, where life is possible.”

Theoretically, there may be sulphuric-phosphate and silicon forms of life that do not require an atmosphere with a high concentration of oxygen. Incidentally, spectroscopic studies of exoplanets show that their atmospheres are oxygen-free.

Boris Pavlishev

Ozone hole second smallest in 20 years


Bringing great reprive to scientists monitoring ozone hole over the Antarctic, the the average area covered by the hole this year is smallest in the last 20 years. 
 
The ozone hole reached its maximum size Sep 22, covering 8.2 million square miles (21.2 million sq km), or the area of the US, Canada and Mexico combined, according to data from NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellites.
 
The average size of the 2012 ozone hole was 6.9 million sq miles (17.9 million square km). The Sep 6, 2000 ozone hole was the largest on record at 11.5 million square miles (29.9 million sq km). 
 
Ozone layer acts as Earth’s natural shield against ultraviolet radiation, which can cause skin cancer. The ozone hole phenomenon began making a yearly appearance in the early 1980s. 
 
“The ozone hole mainly is caused by chlorine from human-produced chemicals, and these chlorine levels are still sizable in the Antarctic stratosphere,” said atmospheric scientist Paul Newman of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre in Greenbelt, according to a NASA statement. 
 
“Natural fluctuations in weather patterns resulted in warmer stratospheric temperatures this year. These temperatures led to a smaller ozone hole,” added Newman. 
 
The Antarctic ozone layer likely will not return to its early 1980s state until about 2065, Newman said. The lengthy recovery is because of the long lifetimes of ozone-depleting substances in the atmosphere. 
 
Overall atmospheric ozone no longer is declining as concentrations of ozone-depleting substances decrease. The decrease is the result of an international agreement regulating the production of certain chemicals.

Milky Way to inevitably merge with Andromeda Nebula – NASA


© Flickr.com/zen/cc-by-nc-sa 3.0

According to NASA, the merger of two neighbouring Galaxies, namely the Milky Way, of which the Solar System is a part and the Andromeda Nebula, is inevitable, since the Galaxies are approaching each other at some 400,000 kilometres per hour.

But the Earth will not get destroyed, nor will humanity suffer in the process, if humans still inhabit the Earth by then. NASA officials said this during a news conference on Thursday.

The merger will begin in approximately four billion years from now and is due over in six billion years.

The new galaxy that will emerge as a result will have a different, most likely elliptical form, and will be populated by fewer cosmic bodies than today.

NASA’s “Black Marble” Photos of Earth At Night


NASA just published some lovely photos of planet Earth at night, showing the many ways night images can be used for science, including seeing where people live, monitoring black-outs, viewing natural events, and even watching the Aurora lights. The images are made possible by a new sensor, the day-night band of the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), which can detect even the dim glow of a single ship in the middle of the ocean.

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Scroll through to see these beautiful, interesting images and learn about the technology used to capture them.

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“Nighttime light is the most interesting data that I’ve had a chance to work with. I’m always amazed at what city light images show us about human activity.” says Chris Elvidge, who leads the Earth Observation Group at NOAA’s National Geophysical Data Center, on NASA’s Flickr set titled “Black Marble”.

NASA states that Elvidge’s research group “has been approached by scientists seeking to model the distribution of carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels and to monitor the activity of commercial fishing fleets. Biologists have examined how urban growth has fragmented animal habitat. Elvidge even learned once of a study of dictatorships in various parts of the world and how nighttime lights had a tendency to expand in the dictator’s hometown or province.”

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This image of the area near Delhi, India shows how NASA’s satellite technology has progressed and just how excellent the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) really is. “For comparison,” writes NASA, “the lower image shows the same area one night earlier, as observed by the Operational Line Scan (OLS) system on a Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) spacecraft.”

While the OLS has been a successful sensor, it uses older technology and, as is made clear by the image, has a much lower resolution than VIIRS. VIIRS is 10 to 15 times better than OLS.

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It is incredible to see exactly where we live when the maps are illuminated by our homes and street lights. Here, the Nile River Valley and Delta is aglow. Approximately 97% of Egypt’s population lives along this section of the Nile, made obvious by the sparkling lights.

“The city lights resemble a giant calla lily, just one with a kink in its stem near the city of Luxor. Some of the brightest lights occur around Cairo, but lights are abundant along the length of the river. Bright city lights also occur along the Suez Canal and around Tel Aviv. Away from the lights, however, land and water appear uniformly black. This image was acquired near the time of the new Moon, and little moonlight was available to brighten land and water surfaces,” writes NASA.

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NASA notes that while city lights at night help to track where people live, it’s not the be-all-end-all method, as evidenced by this image showing the contrast between a glowing South Korea and a dark North Korea. Even though North Korea has about half the number of people that South Korea has, it has just a tiny fraction of lights.

“Worldwide, South Korea ranks 12th in electricity production, and 10th in electricity consumption, per 2011 estimates. North Korea ranks 71st in electricity production, and 73rd in electricity consumption, per 2009 estimates,” states NASA.

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Not only are the satellites useful for tracking the lighted activity of humans, but it can also track the lights of natural phenomena like the aurora australis, or southern lights. Here is a night view of the aurora over Antartica’s Queen Maud Land and the Princess Ragnhild Coast.

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The satellites help scientists researching the Arctic as well, taking images during the polar darkness of the autumn of 2012 so scientists could see the behavior of sea ice after summer melts.

To do this, NASA states, “Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi NPP satellite can see in the dark. The VIIRS “day-night band” detects light in a range of wavelengths from green to near-infrared and uses filtering techniques to observe signals such as gas flares, auroras, wildfires, city lights, and reflected moonlight. The day-night band takes advantage of moonlight, airglow (the atmosphere’s self-illumination through chemical reactions), zodiacal light (sunlight scattered by interplanetary dust), and starlight from the Milky Way. By using these dim light sources, the day-night band can detect changes in clouds, snow cover, and sea ice. The VIIRS day-night band offers a unique perspective because once polar night has descended, satellite sensors relying on visible light can no longer produce photo-like images. And although passive microwave sensors can monitor sea ice through the winter, they offer much lower resolution.”

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The satellites can also track occurrences like wild fires, such as these burning in Siberia, helping to track the progress of the blazes even through the night.