North Sea at night. Black marble satellite image of the North Sea at night. Lights from ships and flares from gas and oil platforms can be seen. On land, more densely populated areas are brighter. Data acquired by the day-night band of the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on board the NASA-NOAA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite, over nine days in April 2012 and 13 days in October 2012.