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Interstate 95 Lights Up the Night in the Northeastern United States Today’s Image of the Day comes thanks to the NASA Earth Observatory and features a look at Interstate 95 lighting up the night.

The famous freeway connects the largest group of bright lights in the northeast, spanning 200 miles and including the major cities of New York, Newark, Philadelphia, Hartford, and New Haven.

This photo was taken by an astronaut onboard the International Space Station.Interstate 95 Lights Up the Night in the Northeastern United States

Night light images like this one are helpful in determining population densities. Here, the population declines in density as you move further away from each city core.The Census Bureau–defined region has a total area of 181,324 sq mi (469,630 km2) with 162,257 sq mi (420,240 km2) of that being land mass. Although it lacks a unified cultural identity, the Northeastern region is the nation’s most economically developeddensely populated, and culturally diverse region. Of the nation’s four census regions, the Northeast has the second-largest percentage of residents living in an urban setting, with 85 percent, and is home to the nation’s largest metropolitan area. The Northeast is home to most of the Northeast megalopolis, the most economically significant and second most-populated of eleven mega regions within the United States, accounting for 20% of US GDP

By Rory Arnold, Earth.com

Source: NASA Earth Observatory

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