The world, at night [2.6MB image]

Composite map of the world assembled from data acquired by the Suomi NPP satellite in April and October 2012.

This spectacular night-time view of Earth is called Black Marble.

It has been assembled from a series of cloud-free images acquired by one of the most capable satellites in the sky today - the Suomi spacecraft.

The platform was launched by the USA in 2011, mainly to deliver critical meteorological data.

Credit: NASA Earth Observatory/NOAA NGDC.