One of the first things researchers noticed when nighttime images from the Suomi NPP satellite were beamed back to Earth: the planet's ambient lighting changes drastically during certain holidays, like Christmas and Ramadan.
According to Brad Plumer, "many large US cities are 20 to 50 percent brighter at night during the holiday season than they are during the rest of the year."
"Researchers affiliated with NASA took a look at holiday lighting with the Suomi NPP satellite," generating a set of maps showing how the effects of holiday lighting from space. While the article has some of the maps showing holiday lights in places like the East Coast and the San Francisco Bay Area, the video below explains more about the findings and processes of Suomi NPP's images.
Read the full story: NASA can see your Christmas lights from space
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