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Astronauts aboard the International Space Station are treated to a spectacular view of cities on Earth lit up at night. But the relative speed of the space station meant any photos taken at night were blurred. In late 2002 and early 2003, however, astronaut Don Pettit, part of Expedition 6, constructed a device called a barn-door tracker using spare parts from around the space station. This moves the camera to compensate for the movement of the Space Station relative to the Earth below, resulting in clearer images.

Since then, a few other crew members have mastered night photography. In late 2007 to early 2008, Expedition 16 Flight Engineer Dan Tani took images of cities with a longer, 400 mm lens.

City lights provide sharp boundaries that delineate the densest concentrations of people, allowing us to assess the effect of urbanisation on the Earth’s ecosystems. Transport corridors and major commercial developments jump out.

London at night


Athens, Greece


Riyadh, Saudi Arabia


Seoul, South Korea


Los Angeles, California


More here

Cool pics

I like the light pollution explanation that comes with the pic of Tokyo...



Most Japanese cities glow blue-green, rather than the orange seen elsewhere. Newer developments along the shore of Tokyo Bay use orange sodium vapour lamps, while the majority of the urban area has light green mercury vapour lamps.

Love the california one it looks like a huge Printed Circuit Board or (PCB)

Good images. There is a really good one of the whole globe. you can see all the major citys. In fact here it is.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/Flat_earth_night.png

Looks like the middle of the Sahara is one of the few places there isn't any light pollution !!

bloody hell the uk LOL lots of light pollution.. No wonder we dont see the stars properly..

Noticed one thing on the World one ,the whole of the world is in darkness just the lights showing,not possible.