SAN FRANCISCO — The Earth at night looks more beautiful than it ever has before in these incredible new images from NASA's Suomi NPP satellite. More Earth From Space: Earth as Art: Stunning Images From Space Strange, Beautiful, Unexpected: Planned Cities From Space These super-high-resolution images, made possible by a new type of infrared sensor on the satellite, were revealed here at the American Geophysical Union conference Dec. 5. The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite has a "day-night band" that can detect natural and man-made light with unprecedented resolution and clarity. It can resolve everything from the nocturnal glow of the atmosphere to the light of a single boat at sea. It can detect auroras, wildfires, the reflection of moon and star light off clouds and ice and the lights alongside highways. The sensor has six times better spatial resolution and 250 times better resolution of lighting levels than anything that came before it. The VIIRS instrument works by scanning in 22 different wavelength bands. For each pixel, it uses a low-, medium- or high-gain mode to accurately depict the light from each source. Low-light signals are amplified and bright lights are kept from being over-saturated. The data from the Suomi satellite is freely available to the public within hours, providing the first look at the Earth at night for most scientists. Previously, the U.S. Air Force had a suite of night-time satellites with low-light sensors, but the data wasn't nearly as good, was mostly classified, and was available only to a few scientists. Above: United States This image is a composite of data taken by the VIIRS instrument aboard the Suomi NPP satellite in April and October 2012. Image: NASA/NOAA (High-resolution version)

Video: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

The Nile River Valley and Delta This image dramatically illustrates the fact that around 97 percent of Egypt's population occupies the 5 percent of land around the Nile River and its delta. Image: NASA/NOAA, taken Oct. 13, 2012 (High-resolution version)

Video: NASA Earth Observatory/NOAA NGDC

Africa This incredible image of the night side of Earth is a composite of data gathered by the Suomi NPP satellite in April and October 2012 and mapped over previous imagery of the whole Earth. Image: NASA/NOAA. (High-resolution version)

The Arctic As polar darkness encroaches, it is harder and harder to monitor sea ice. Now the VIIRS instrument on the Suomi NPP satellite can keep an eye on the Arctic all through the winter. The satellite captured this image on Oct. 30, 2012. Image: NASA/NOAA (High-resolution version)

Southern Lights This incredible image of the aurora australis over Antartica’s Queen Maud Land and the Princess Ragnhild Coast was captured by the VIIRS instrument on the Suomi NPP satellite on July 15, 2012. Image: NASA/NOAA (High-resolution version)

Idaho Wildfires The Mustang Complex Fire in northern Idaho can be seen in this image taken by the VIIRS instrument on the Suomi NPP satellite on Aug. 29, 2012. This was the best nighttime view possible of the fires, with each pixel showing around 2,500 feet, compared to the next best thing which shows nearly 10,000 feet per pixel. Image: NASA/NOAA. (High-resolution version)

California This image of low-lying marine layer clouds on the coast of California was taken by the VIIRS instrument on the Suomi NPP satellite on Sept. 27, 2012. Image: NASA/NOAA (High-resolution version)

Persian Gulf Moon Phases These images show the Persian Gulf through the phases of the moon from full on Sept. 30 to new on Oct. 15. Images: NASA/NOAA (High-resolution versions)

Flat Earth This fantastic view of the whole Earth at night is a composite built from 2.5 terabytes of data from the VIIRS instrument on the Suomi NPP satellite acquired in 312 orbits over nine days in April 2012 and 13 days in October 2012. Image: NASA/NOAA (High-resolution version)

Airglow Airglow is a faint layer of light generated by chemical reactions in the atmosphere involving oxygen, nitrogen, sodium and ozone. Airglow occurs at all hours, and is sometimes called nightglow when witnessed in the dark. In the left part of this image taken by the Suomi satellite in April 2012, nightglow can be seen over Texas, with ripples caused by a huge thunderstorm. Image: NASA/NOAA. (High-resolution version)

North and South Korea Though it is estimated to have half the population of South Korea, North Korea appears almost dark next to its brightly lit southern neighbor in this image. Only some faint lights representing Pyongyang can be seen. To the left of South Korea in the Yellow Sea, the lights of ships can be clearly seen, some forming a distinct line. Image: NASA/NOAA, taken Sept. 24, 2012 (High-resolution version)