At a Glance: United States at Night

Produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute’s Office of Public Outreach in collaboration with the NASA Earth Observatory.

All images, illustrations, and videos courtesy of NASA

except:

·       Daytime photo of lightning in Arizona courtesy of Wikipedia user ed ouimette

·       Photo of oil wells and flare in North Dakota courtesy of Tim Evanson

·       Photo of fracking equipment in North Dakota courtesy of Joshua Doubek

·       Photo of old and new San Francisco – Oakland Bay bridges courtesy of Frank Schulenburg

·       Sea creature illustration copyright The National Library of Israel, Shapell Family Digitization Project _and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Department of Geography – Historic Cities Research Project

 

Music courtesy of Associated Production Music

Written by Tracy Vogel

Designed by Marc Lussier

(SPEECH)

[SOFT MUSIC]

 

(DESCRIPTION)

Stars shine behind Earth. Text, at-a-Glance, US Cities and Roads at Night

 

Two bridges at night. Text, The United States has 4.1 million miles (6.6 million kilometers) of roads, more than any other nation in the world.

 

(SPEECH)

[GENTLE MUSIC]

 

(DESCRIPTION)

White dots on a black map of the United States. Text, This satellite image shows US cities and towns blazing with electric light.

 

Another US map next to the satellite map. Text, If you look at this map of US highways, railroads, and rivers, you'll see similarities.

 

In the 20th century, the development of cities and suburbs often conformed to the path of interstate highways.

 

Lines and white dots on a US map. Text, Our lights trace the routes charted by our roads.