14 DAY TRIAL // With just a couple of days left until Thanksgiving, officials in the United States expect to see a massive migration of citizens from one end of the country to the other. It is estimated that around 1 in 7 Americans, roughly 43.4 million people, will travel during the weekend to their holiday destinations.
Waiting for them are 4.1 million miles (6.6 million kilometers) of roads, 27,000 miles (204,000 kilometers) of railroad tracks and 25,000 miles (40,000 kilometers) of navigable waterways. All this infrastructure is clearly visible in the image above, as seen during the night.
The photo was collected over three days by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument aboard the NASA Suomi NPP satellite. The view was captured during the three days before the latest new moon, when the skies were dark, and oddly cloud-free for this period.
VIIRS is capable of making such observations due to the fact that it was designed to be extremely sensitive to very low light levels, as well as to man-made light sources. By combining data from multiple passes, the tool was able to produce an accurate light map that also shows America's transport infrastructure.