NASA has released satellite images of Spain taken in the early morning of April 28 and 29. They show the consequences of the blackout, which affected tens of millions of people.
A widespread power outage in the Iberian Peninsula occurred on April 28, 2025. Subway trains stopped, hospitals switched to generators, phone and internet service was down. By evening, power supply in most of Spain had been restored. But in the south of the country in Andalusia, darkness lasted at least until the next day.
Images from NASA’s Black Marble project show the difference in lighting between the early morning of April 28 (before the blackout) and the early morning of April 29. They were created from data collected by the VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) radiometer on the NOAA-20 satellite.
The Black Marble team calibrated the measurements to account for changes in the landscape, atmosphere, and phase of the moon, and to remove stray light from non-electric sources. On April 29, clouds were mostly offshore and did not obscure many land-based light sources. In the map below, areas where illumination data could not be obtained due to clouds are shown in gray.
By April 29, light had returned to most urban areas on the Iberian Peninsula, experts said. However, it was still dark in rural Andalusia and in the southern and eastern parts of Granada.
This is a fairly typical occurrence. Black Marble’s analysis of data collected after natural disasters in other parts of the world shows that residents in rural areas often have to wait longer for power to be restored than those in urban areas. This poses a serious problem as most rural areas are populated by at-risk people, such as the elderly.
Earlier we reported on how Pope Francis’ funeral looked from space.
According to Earthobservatory
