# Earth's City Lights by DMSP, 1994-1995 (large)

- By: Data: Marc Imhoff/NASA GSFC, Christopher Elvidge/NOAA NGDC; Image: Craig Mayhew and Robert Simmon/NASA GSFC
- Date: between 1 October 1994 and 31 March 1995
- Classification: Photograph
- Credit line: https://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view.php?id=55167 (image link)
- Museum: [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Earth%27s_City_Lights_by_DMSP,_1994-1995_(large).jpg)
- Rights: Public domain
- Picture: https://invisiblenetwork.ai/thumbs/commons/thumb/e/e1/Earth%27s_City_Lights_by_DMSP%2C_1994-1995_%28large%29.jpg/1920px-Earth%27s_City_Lights_by_DMSP%2C_1994-1995_%28large%29.jpg
- Who can see it: Kids profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

This image of Earth’s city lights was created with data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Operational Linescan System (OLS). Originally designed to view clouds by moonlight, the OLS is also used to map the locations of permanent lights on the Earth’s surface.

The brightest areas of the Earth are the most urbanized, but not necessarily the most populated. (Compare western Europe with China and India.) Cities tend to grow along coastlines and transportation networks. Even without the underlying map, the outlines of many continents would still be visible. The United States interstate highway system appears as a lattice connecting the brighter dots of city centers. In Russia, the Trans-Siberian railroad is a thin line stretching from Moscow through the center of Asia to Vladivostok. The Nile River, from the Aswan Dam to the Mediterranean Sea, is another bright thread through an otherwise dark region.

Even more than 100 years after the invention of the electric light, some regions remain thinly populated and unlit. Antarctica is entirely dark. The interior jungles of Africa and South America are mostly dark, but lights are beginning to appear there. Deserts in…