Uploaded on 2017-06-24 by Anonymous (Image Credit: ISS Expedition 30, Nasa)

In this night image of the city of Dubai, taken from the International Space Station, a number of structures can be discerned. To the Northwest, we see the artificial archipelago of the Palm Jumeirah jutting out into inky black waters of the Arabian Gulf. To the South, lies the undeveloped outer edge of the city, slowly transitioning into the shifting sands of the desert. To the East, the Dubai International Airport is visible, with its long runways lit by bright white lights. To the Northeast, the Dubai Creek snakes its way into the interior of the city. The brightest spot in the map is none other than the Burj Khalifa and the Dubai Mall. Its piercing glow is a focal point of this urban assemblage. This image reveals quite a bit of invisible information in the form of luminance. Sodium-vapour lamps reveal the major arteries and roads of the city in the form of an expanding orange grid. This contrasts sharply with the cool white lighting of the internal road networks of residential and commercial areas. Parcel sizes are also discernible due to the higher resolution of the image, along with the relative densities of urban inhabitation. Using machine learning, one can translate the changing luminance patterns of the urban nightscape into knowledge about how the city is growing. It may be possible to identify two different urban growth trajectories that are close enough to be linked in order to increase urban Connectivity and Accessibility.