The new maps were produced with data from all months of each year. Likewise, seasonal vegetation, clouds, aerosols, snow and ice cover, and even faint atmospheric emissions (such as airglow and auroras) change the way light is observed in different parts of the world. The principal challenge in nighttime satellite imaging is accounting for the phases of the Moon, which constantly varies the amount of light shining on Earth, though in predictable ways. The NASA group has examined the different ways that light is radiated, scattered and reflected by land, atmospheric and ocean surfaces. The new global composite map of night lights was observed in 2016. Since researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA released a new Earth at night map in 2012, Roman and teammates at NASA's Earth Observing Satellite Data and Information System ( EOSDIS) have been working to integrate nighttime data into NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS) and Worldview mapping tools. They are now on the verge of providing daily, high- definition views of Earth at night, and are targeting the release of such data to the science community later this year.

In the years since the 2011 launch of the NASA-NOAA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite, researchers have been analysing night lights data and developing new software and algorithms to make night lights imagery clearer, more accurate and readily available.

Night satellite view of earth