If you've ever imagined what your city looks like at night from space, Google and NASA have made that experience possible on a new website.
On the Earth at Night 2012 site, Google maps a composite of images taken by the Suomi NPP satellite at night, showing city lights. The images were collected by the satellite during nine days in April 2012, and 13 days in October 2012, and it took 312 orbits to obtain a clear image of each section of the earth.
In this way, it is possible to see the light reflected by large cities such as New York, Mexico, London or Tokyo, but it is also possible to observe the light given off by oil installations such as those located in the Campeche Sound, in the Gulf of Mexico, and in places as remote as the Arctic.
The images from space join those taken below the sea surface, released last September. Internet users can use Google's mapping service to see turtles swimming among fish, follow a stingray or see a reef at sunset in Australia, the Philippines and Hawaii.