This Black Marble Nighttime Blue/Yellow Composite (Day/Night Band) false-color image shows the Aurora Borealis over North America on Jan. 21, 2026. 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 and nighttime cloud presence (in infrared) in shades of blue. VIIRS Day/Night Band data have been used to augment aurora forecast model predictions.
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