Earth at Night This new global view of Earth’s city lights is a composite assembled from data acquired by the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite. Credit: NASA’s Earth Observatory/NOAA/DOD The data was acquired over nine days in April 2012 and 13 days in October 2012. It took 312 orbits to get a clear shot of every parcel of Earth’s land surface and islands. This new data was then mapped over existing Blue Marble imagery of Earth to provide a realistic view of the planet. The image was made possible by the satellite’s “day-night band” of the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite, which detects light in a range of wavelengths from green to near-infrared and uses filtering techniques to observe dim signals such as city lights, gas flares, auroras, wildfires and reflected moonlight. The day-night band observed Hurricane Sandy, illuminated by moonlight, making landfall over New Jersey on the evening of Oct. 29. Night images showed the widespread power outages that left millions in darkness in the wake of the storm. (via ikenbot:)
Pop-upView Separately

Earth at Night

This new global view of Earth’s city lights is a composite assembled from data acquired by the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite.

Credit: NASA’s Earth Observatory/NOAA/DOD

The data was acquired over nine days in April 2012 and 13 days in October 2012. It took 312 orbits to get a clear shot of every parcel of Earth’s land surface and islands. This new data was then mapped over existing Blue Marble imagery of Earth to provide a realistic view of the planet.

The image was made possible by the satellite’s “day-night band” of the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite, which detects light in a range of wavelengths from green to near-infrared and uses filtering techniques to observe dim signals such as city lights, gas flares, auroras, wildfires and reflected moonlight.

The day-night band observed Hurricane Sandy, illuminated by moonlight, making landfall over New Jersey on the evening of Oct. 29. Night images showed the widespread power outages that left millions in darkness in the wake of the storm.

(via ikenbot:)

The Oseberg

Using authentic techniques and tools, a team in Norway has built a seaworthy replica of the 9th century Viking ship, the Oseberg. In 1904, the well-preserved, beautifully decorated ship was found in a burial mound in the Slagen Valley outside Tønsberg, Norway, along with the remains of two women, sleds, tapestries and wagons. The replica took $2 million to build today, so to have such a magnificent funeral in such an expensive ship, the women had to be important—the elder of the two is guessed to been a queen or a seeress. Two previous attempts at building a replica have failed, but this time, the project pre-planning was meticulous, involving laser and computer scannings of the increasingly-fragile original ship, which is on display in a museum in Bygdøy. The building took place in public view in Tønsberg’s harbour. The builders were volunteers from a variety of crafts—boat builders, carpenters, smiths, and textile workers were all involved, and they all used tradictional methods and tools from archaeological reconstruction. The ship is 21.5 m long, propelled by 15 pairs of oars and a square sail of about 80 metres square, and it was launched last week—and found seaworthy.

Watch the launch on Youtube

(via sciencesoup:)

The life and times of Lonesome George

Lonesome George, the last of the Pinta island giant tortoises and a conservation icon, has died of unknown causes. He was believed to be about 100 years old. He was found in 1972 and become a symbol of the Galápagos Islands. His species helped Charles Darwin formulate his theory of evolution in the 19th century

Photographs: Rodrigo Buendia/AFP/Getty Images & Reuters

(via guardian:)