NASA posted an evening image of the Earth from satellite images on Instagram, giving “a clear picture of the patterns of inhabited territories on the planet.”

Satellite images of the Earth have captured the lights of the night and “how humans have shaped the planet and illuminated the darkness,” NASA says.

The image shows Earth’s night lights in 2016 and was compiled from a series of different photographs that show cloudless evenings over each region. For the final result, data were collected throughout the year.

“Using this data, we can track short-term changes caused by power outages, conflicts, hurricanes, earthquakes and power outagescomments veteran NASA scientist Miguel Roman.

“We can track periodic changes caused by repetitive human activities such as holiday lighting and seasonal movements. We can also write gradual changes due to urbanization, immigration, economic fluctuations and electrification. The fact that we can see all these different aspects in the very center of the city is amazing.”

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Posted by NASA (@nasa)

Source: NASA.