Total Lunar Eclipse in the Day Night Band
NOAA-20 Day Night Band imagery from early morning (from the VIIRS Today website at CIMSS) on 19 November 2021 shows the impact of the total lunar eclipse on Day Night Band imagery. A lunar eclipse will always occur during a Full Moon; ample lunar illumination off the east coast accompanied that descending NOAA-20 pass between about 0635 and 0640 UTC (as shown in this orbital path image from this website) — just as the lunar eclipse was starting. By the time NOAA-20 overflew the central US (0815 to 0825 UTC), near totality was occurring. The overflight on the west coast (0955 to 1005 UTC) occurred as the eclipse was starting to wane, so a bit more lunar illumination was available.
A similar Day Night Band image from Suomi-NPP (also from the VIIRS Today website) is below, and it shows similar differences in swath illumination. The west coast overpass by Suomi-NPP occurred around 1050 UTC; by then the eclipse had ended. Suomi NPP Day Night Band imagery is also available at the NASA Worldview site.
