At night, the view from the International Space Station is surprisingly colourful. Earth’s many types of artificial lights create a bright mosaic, with the different hues revealing different lightbulbs and even different countries.
Take this photo, which an ISS member took of a narrow strait between South Korea and Japan. On the left is South Korea, tinged orange by high-pressure sodium lights. In the middle are fishing boats, surrounded by the blue light of xenon bulbs used to lure Japanese flying squid. Japan, with glowing green with its mercury vapour lights, is at the far right. [NASA Earth Observatory]