This is a classic composite picture which NASA first published in 2002, and which they’ve just put up again at Astronomy Picture of the Day.
Click on the picture for a higher resolution image, resize your browser window as large as it will go, and zoom in. See which features our night-time illuminations highlight. I’m particularly impressed by the clear representation of the way that population centres in Egypt cling to the course of the Nile.
More information about how the image was generated is here, along with an even higher-res version where the grid-layout of settlements in the plain-states of the USA can be clearly discerned.
The really interesting thing about the Nile is how the lights stop at the border of the Sudan.
Where the lights stop on the Korean Peninsula is also (ahem) illuminating.
See too the lights on the west side of Taiwan, facing mainland China.
The really interesting thing about the Nile is how the lights stop at the border of the Sudan.
Where the lights stop on the Korean Peninsula is also (ahem) illuminating.
See too the lights on the west side of Taiwan, facing mainland China.
China will be a country to keep an eye on.
North Korea- no surprises there.
Check out the disparity between Java and the rest of Indonesia. Not sure if that’s a reflection of pop. density or power… probably both.
Interesting the changes between photos.
The first one published had caught the Japanese fishing fleet at sea, made more lights than South Korea, in the middle of the ocean.
Also there were oilfield fires in Russia at the time.
tigtog, there is a reproduction of this pic in James Lovelock’s book The Revenge of Gaia for obvious reasons. It also showed up in Al Gore’s film followed by one showing where all the forest fires had been in the course of a year, which was instructive, indeed illuminating!
PS it’s also in Tim Flannery’s The Weather Makers.
That’s not true Woulfe
Brilliant! MetroManila really is that bright. Lights are concentrated on the west coast of Taiwan because much of the east coast is very rugged and the mountains behind it are even more rugged.
When flying, you can see an extraordinary amount of light all the way across the frozen north of Russia – you are never out of sight of a mine or an industrial complex or a city.
And via kottke.org: star-gazing in Reykjavik.