Originally said to be a Nasa Photo, enhanced composite satellite image. This photo was taken via satellite, on a cloudless day. Note how the lights are already on in Holland, Paris, and Barcelona, and how it's still daylight in London, Lisbon, and Madrid. The sun is still shining on the Straight of Gibraltar, and the Mediterranean Ocean is already in darkness. In the middle of the Atlantic Ocean you can see the Azores Islands; below them to the right, the Madeira Islands; a bit below them the Canary Islands; further south, close to the furthest western point of Africa, the Cape Verde Islands. Note how the Sahara is huge and can be seen clearly both during daytime and nighttime. It is obvious to me that the reason you can see the nighttime view of the Sahara, is that the moon is lighting it. To the left, on top, is Greenland, totally frozen.

I have received word that the above information is not true. While this is a pretty photo it was not created by NASA. I received the photo in about 2001, shortly after I started my homepage, as an attachment to an e-mail.

At the bottom of the NASA page it says "By dissecting this image, we've learned that it is composed of many elements, collected by a variety of instruments, at different times and places, with several wavelengths of light (and even sound) -- combined in a computer to create an "impossible" view of the Earth. Scientists use images like this -- called visualizations -- to interpret complex data, and communicate their understanding to others. The image itself was generated by the Earth and Moon Viewer, a Web-based tool that produces Earth imagery from several perspectives. The Earth daylit and night-time images were developed by The Living Earth"