The Black Marble – Nighttime Lights only layer is a nighttime view of the Earth, showing visible light emanating from anthropogenic sources such as city lights and other human-driven patterns. This layer is an overlay showing only the nighttime lights. The Black Marble layer is an improvement over the "Earth At Night 2012: VIIRS City Lights 2012" layer, providing a look at anthropogenic light sources only, stripping out other nighttime light sources such as auroras, airglow and reflected moonlight from desert, snow, and other natural features. The layers are a composite of data from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument on board the joint NASA/NOAA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) satellite. The image composite was assembled from clear, cloud free images for 2012 and 2016.

Currently, the Black Marble imagery is available only as a single snapshot in time for 2012 and 2016. The sensor resolution is 750 m and the image resolution is 500 m. The imagery can be visualized in Worldview/Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS).

References: NASA Earth Observatory: Night Light Maps Open Up New Applications