# BlackMarble20161km

- By: NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens, using Suomi NPP VIIRS data from Miguel Román, NASA's Goddard Space…
- Date: 2017-03-23
- Classification: Photograph
- Credit line: NASA https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/new-night-lights-maps-open-up-possible-real-time-applications (image link)
- Museum: [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BlackMarble20161km.jpg)
- Rights: Public domain
- Picture: https://invisiblenetwork.ai/thumbs/commons/thumb/a/af/BlackMarble20161km.jpg/1920px-BlackMarble20161km.jpg
- Who can see it: Kids profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

This composite image shows Earth's night lights as observed in 2016. The compositing technique selected the best cloud-free nights in each month over each land mass. The team has also reprocessed 2012 data with the new techniques so that researchers can compare and contrast light sources over the years. By late 2017, Román and colleagues hope to provide daily high-definition views of Earth at night.