diff --git a/pygmt/datasets/earth_relief.py b/pygmt/datasets/earth_relief.py
index 9c248989f57..c90d9c5b4b0 100644
--- a/pygmt/datasets/earth_relief.py
+++ b/pygmt/datasets/earth_relief.py
@@ -8,6 +8,12 @@
 from pygmt.exceptions import GMTInvalidInput
 from pygmt.helpers import kwargs_to_strings
 from pygmt.src import grdcut, which
+import  rioaxarray
+
+def load_earth_night():
+    fname = which("@earth_night_01d") 
+    dataarray=xr.open_dataarray(fname, engine="rasterio")
+    return dataarray
 
 
 @kwargs_to_strings(region="sequence")