I-95 Lighted Corridor at Night, NASA ISS Photo Card

I-95 at Night A nearly uninterrupted string of lights stretches from Philadelphia to Hartford. An astronaut aboard the International Space Station centred this photograph on the largest group of lights in the northeastern United States. New York City and Newark, New Jersey, lie at the centre of a string of city lights stretching roughly 300 kilometres (200 miles) from Philadelphia to Hartford. The characteristic shape of Long Island, during night and daylight overpasses, is one of the most recognizable features to an astronaut looking at the Northeast coast. Night-light intensity indicates population densities, a phenomenon well-known to urban geographers. An important pattern is the progressive decline of population density away from the cores of the largest cities. Lower population densities appear in the southern counties of New Jersey, though the barrier islands are defined by narrow shoreline developments. Some rural areas in the photo have fewer lights than shipping lanes of the North Atlantic Ocean. A network of thin lines indicates highways and main roads—which can be difficult to discern in daylight images—radiating from the major cities. One of the brightest lines is Interstate 95, which crosses the entire image from a point west of Philadelphia through New York—where it is overwhelmed by city lights—and along the coast of Connecticut. Image of the Day for May 1, 2017 Instrument: ISS — Digital Camera Appears in these Collections: Astronaut Photography Earth at Night NASA https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/90129/the-i-95-corridor-at-night