The image was taken by the Expedition 38 crew. These differences are illustrated in per capita power consumption in the two countries, with South Korea at 10,162 kilowatt hours and North Korea at 739 kilowatt hours.Īstronaut photograph ISS038-E-38300 was acquired on January 30, 2014, with a Nikon D3S digital camera using a 24 millimeter lens, and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. But the coast of North Korea is difficult to detect. The light emission from Pyongyang is equivalent to the smaller towns in South Korea.Ĭoastlines are often very apparent in night imagery, as shown by South Korea’s eastern shoreline. Its capital city, Pyongyang, appears like a small island, despite a population of 3.26 million (as of 2008). The darkened land appears as if it were a patch of water joining the Yellow Sea to the Sea of Japan.

North Korea is almost completely dark compared to neighboring South Korea and China.

There are 25.6 million people in the Seoul metropolitan area-more than half of South Korea’s citizens-while Gunsan’s population is 280,000. In this north-looking view, it is immediately obvious that greater Seoul is a major city and that the port of Gunsan is minor by comparison. Unlike daylight images, city lights at night illustrate dramatically the relative economic importance of cities, as gauged by relative size. Flying over East Asia, astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) took this night image of the Korean Peninsula.

Night satellite view of earth