What are the yellow areas?
Lights
How was this map created?
Multiple satellite images of the United States at night were combined to form this image.
What is missing that you would expect on a single image of the US?
Clouds
There are several possibilities: the image was made using a camera sensitive to light that is not absorbed by clouds, or the individual images used were selected from different nights to exclude clouds.
What was added?
Borders
What major cities can be seen in the following states: Texas, Colorado, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, Oklahoma, Illinois, Tennessee, Georgia, Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, and Utah?
| State | Easily Located Cities |
| Texas | Dallas, Houston |
| Colorado | Denver |
| Minnesota | St. Paul/Minneapolis |
| Missouri | Kansas City, St. Louis |
| Nevada | Las Vegas |
| Oklahoma | Tulsa, Oklahoma City |
| Illinois | Chicago |
| Tennessee | Nashville |
| Georgia | Atlanta |
| Washington | Seattle |
| Oregon | Portland |
| California | Los Angeles, San Francisco |
| Arizona | Phoenix |
| Utah | Salt Lake City |
There are a lot of other cities that you might be able to identify. Some other major cities may be more difficult to identify because they are surrounded by other bright cities. For instance, you might have difficulty where among the bright lights in the middle of Florida Orlando is. Or which of the bright spots in Ohio is Cleveland. On the other hand, if you are very familiar with the geography of a state, you might be able to identify very small dots of light. For instance, in Missouri, St. Joseph, Columbia, Jefferson City, Springfield and Branson are easily discernible.
Why is there a large area of brightness in North Dakota?
This is almost certainly the light from burning excess natural gas in the Bakken oil shale formation. There are no major cities in this area.
Which way is North, South, East and West?
North is up, South is down, East is to the right and West is to the left.
What is to the North, South, East and West of the United States?
Canada is to the North, Mexico is to the South, the Atlantic Ocean is to the East and the Pacific Ocean is to the West.
Goals of this image:
- Recognize major features on a US map
- Recognize major cities in the US
- Recognize states based on boundaries
- Know major cities in a state
- Recognize locations of cities within a state
CoMo Science 
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