South America,night-day satellite image. This composite image of the Earth is set against a background of stars,and is centred on South America. North is at top. The left-hand half of the globe is at night,and city lights (yellow) show areas of dense population. The right-hand half of the globe is lit by sunlight and shows clouds (white),seas and oceans (blue),and land cover: vegetation (green) and arid areas (brown). This day-night line is the dawn terminator. This image,from 2001,combines data from a variety of satellite sensors (AVHRR,SeaWiFS,MODIS) for the sunlit areas. Night-time data is from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP). For the separate images,see E074/086 and E050/684 |