Stunning Image Mid-Atlantic Blackout Caused By Storm Seen By Satellite

Credit: NASA/NOAA/CIMSS, Univ. of Wisconsin

The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on Suomi NPP captured a night-time view of the Mid-Atlantic on the morning of Nov. 1, 2012,revealing areas where power has not been currently restored. To fully understand the extent of how large an area was affected by the power outage, a comparison image taken on October 21, 2012, shows a much brighter New York City and eastern New Jersey.Power outages in the Philadelphia area can also be seen by comparing the two images.

The images were provided by the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The Nov. 1, 2012, data was acquired at the University of Wisconsin and processed using the University of Wisconsin’s Community Satellite Processing Package.

Hurricane Sandy made landfall on the New Jersey coast during the night of Oct. 29 and left more than eight million people without electricity from Maine to South Carolina, and as far west as Ohio. Hardest hit were New York City and northeastern New Jersey as is evident in a comparison of Suomi NPP images before and after the storm. In north central New Jersey, routes 444 and 18 that begin near New Brunswick and extend southeast to the New Jersey shoreline both appear dark in the Nov. 1 image. In addition, the intensity of lights around the Trenton, N.J., area are much dimmer than they appeared in the Aug. 31 image.