NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recently revealed new satellite photos that show holiday lights on the ground are plainly visible way up in space.

It also presented a unique peek into different cultures around the world.

Beginning 2012, scientist Miguel Roman and his team from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center examined satellite photos of the night time light output of 70 U.S. cities to study and observe greenhouse gas emissions, specifically in urban areas.

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They noticed the uncanny phenomenon of lights glowing brighter after Black Friday and towards New Year's Day. In the last two years, the team observed that suburban areas in the U.S. shine 20 to 50 percent brighter at night during the holiday season compared to the rest of the year.

They also observed similar night time light celebrations around the Middle East during the month long Ramadan season where social gatherings occur at night after day-long fasting. These Middle Eastern cities shine 50 percent more brightly at night when the Muslim holiday season is celebrated as opposed to other months of the year.

Since the U.S. is also home to diverse ethnic and religious groups, this type of festive holiday lighting seems to be a nationwide event. When Ramadan is celebrated in the Middle East, however, the lighting patterns are different for every country or region.

Saudi Arabian countries increased their night lighting output by as much as 60 to 100 percent in Ramadan. Turkish cities have a lesser usage of night time lighting. Lebanon, Iraq and Syria do not have any increase in lighting or decrease their lighting significantly during this Muslim holiday season.

In cities such as Cairo in Egypt during the Ramadan festivities, night light brightness varies in different towns and the poorest or most religious areas often do not use lights in strict observance of Ramadan. When the Eid al-Fitr celebrations start after the end of Ramadan, light use across the country increases among all socioeconomic standards.

This suggests religious and cultural traditions are pivotal in the demand for energy.

This satellite data not only pinpoints the source of major carbon gas emissions, but also offers new insights on how different cultural and religious celebrations can affect climate change.

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