LOS ANGELES: The United States National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) has warned that a fake image purportedly showing India on Diwali night that is circulating on social media is not from the space agency. On Thursday, NASA published a black and white satellite image of India on Diwali in an effort to dispel the ongoing fake image that is making the rounds. “On November 12, 2012, the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi NPP satellite captured this nighttime view of southern Asia,” NASA said in releasing the picture of India on Diwali night. “The image is based on data collected by the VIIRS ‘day-night band', which detects light in a range of wavelengths from green to near-infrared. The image has been brightened to make the city lights easier to distinguish,” the statement continued. NASA said most of the bright areas in the imagery released by it are cities and towns in India, which boasts of world's largest Hindu population. “India is home to more than 1.2 billion people and has 30 cities with population over one million. (For comparison, China has 62 cities with more than one million residents and the United States has nine),” it said. Cities in Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan are also visible near the edges of the image. “An image that claims to show the region lit for Diwali has been circulating on social media websites and the Internet in recent years. In fact, it does not show what it claims. That image, based on data from the Operational Linescan System flown on US Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) satellites, is a color-composite created in 2003 by NOAA scientist Chris Elvidge to highlight population growth over time,” NASA said. “In that image, white areas show city lights that were visible prior to 1992, while blue, green, and red shades indicate city lights that became visible in 1992, 1998, and 2003 respectively,” it said. “In reality, any extra light produced during Diwali is so subtle that it is likely imperceptible when observed from space,” NASA said.
