\tScience & Exploration<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t12\/05\/2025
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As the night closed in on Spain and Portugal on 28 April, polar satellites followed the blackout that lasted well into the early hours of the morning in several regions.<\/p>\n
While electricity was restored in most of the territory by evening, some areas remained in darkness longer.<\/p>\n
Night-time images from NASA\u2019s Suomi-NPP, NOAA-20 and NOAA-21 satellites captured the extent of the blackout and tracked the gradual electricity recovery from orbit.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNight-time light emissions during blackout in Spain and Portugal <\/a><\/p>\n The images show areas with both sustained power outages and restored light emissions during night-time.<\/p>\n \tMapping a blackout in six frames<\/p>\n The three satellites circling Earth from pole to pole made six passes over Spain and Portugal between dusk and dawn. Each pass delivered a snapshot of the evolving power grid situation.<\/p>\n The six images illustrate the chronology and cartography of the blackout, from the first orbits at dusk to the near-complete recovery around 5 AM. It was a mostly cloudless night.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tGreen is black<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cBy overlaying the six satellite passes and applying NASA\u2019s night-time algorithms, we can identify large green spots suddenly appearing and gradually fading,\u201d explains Alejandro S\u00e1nchez de Miguel, researcher at the Instituto de Astrof\u00edsica de Andaluc\u00eda (IAA-CSIC) and project lead of several ESA-supported initiatives monitoring light pollution from space.<\/p>\n \u201cThe green dots indicate the absence of light, while white ones show areas with stable electricity supply. This distribution is consistent with electrical company reports and the gradual return to normality,\u201d adds Alejandro.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tBlackout in Andalusia<\/a><\/p>\n This widespread power outage underscores how space-based monitoring tools can help assess infrastructure resilience, prioritise repairs and facilitate emergency responses. \u00a0<\/p>\n \tScientific night shifts<\/p>\n Most Europeans live under light-polluted skies. The European Space Agency (ESA) coordinates and supports a scientific infrastructure that could turn power outages into case studies to investigate disruptions to the day-and-night rhythm of living organisms, including humans.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tIberian Peninsula at night<\/a><\/p>\n ESA contributes to the Night Watch project<\/a>, a European multispectral mission studying nighttime light emissions. Cases like this blackout help establish thresholds for future monitoring systems.<\/p>\n For an astronaut looking out of the International Space Station windows, city lights are brighter than the stars. ESA astronauts also contribute images to several citizen science activities. The Cities at Night<\/a> initiative calibrates, tags and geolocates the astronauts\u2019 nighttime photography collection. \u00a0<\/p>\n