This Black Marble Nighttime Blue/Yellow Composite (Day/Night Band) false-color image shows the Aurora Borealis over the Yukon and Northwest Territories of Canada on December 21, 2022. This image was acquired by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) aboard the joint NASA/NOAA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) satellite. The Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights, appear like waves dancing over the landscape.
The Black Marble Nighttime Blue/Yellow Composite (Day/Night Band) is a false color composite using the VIIRS at-sensor radiance and the brightness temperatures from the M15 band. Data are provided by NASA’s VNP46A1 product using Suomi NPP observations. Originally designed by the Naval Research Lab and incorporated into NASA research and applications efforts, the resulting false color scheme produces nighttime city lights in shades of yellow with infrared, nighttime cloud presence in shades of blue. During bright moonlight conditions, moonlight reflected from cloud tops and the land surface may also provide a yellow hue to those features. Comparisons of cloud-free conditions before and after a period of significant change, such as new city growth, disasters, fires, or other factors, may exhibit a change in emitted light (yellows) from those features over time.
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Dataset: doi:10.5067/VIIRS/VNP46A1.001
