The World Atlas of the Artificial Night Sky Brightness

[Count Zero]

This was on slashdot, but what the hey... It's pretty cool.

I think you can figure out what it means by the title of the thread.

Another possible title would be: "Human infestation worldwide".

[btw: Was this post too big ? GIF sucks.]

[Katkeeper]

Very interesting image and worth waiting for!

I am curious about the Falkland Islands, however. I had no idea they were so developed that they used so much electricity.

[Undertoad]

People can post what they want, but I try to limit the size of images to about 60k.

I have a similar image that is 1600 pixels wide, that I've been waiting to post. It's even larger than your image!

Since this thread also contains a huge image, I'll wait until tomorrow to post mine.

[elSicomoro]

Originally posted by Katkeeper
Very interesting image and worth waiting for!

I am curious about the Falkland Islands, however. I had no idea they were so developed that they used so much electricity.

(I edited this from my initial reply)

I did some playing around on the Falklands government website, and most of their economy is now built upon fishing, which would go with what Tom mentioned in his post. The Falklands seem to be a very interesting place...their website is rather detailed. I guess you can be so detailed when you have a population of 2500 people.

http://www.falklands.gov.fk

It looks like the brightest areas are the Benelux countries (?!), southern Japan, and of course, the megalopolis of Boston-New York-Philadelphia-Baltimore-Washington.

I was also surprised to see all the dark areas, particularly in the western US.

[jaguar]

Japan is jsut one bright blob! Awww i can see my own little city...
Our school intranet has an image similar to this that is not enhanced in natural colour which i might psot in this thread - its an interesting comparison and allows you to see far more accurately.

[modernhamlet]

If you look at southern Japan, you'll notice that the densest area (lots of red and white) is actually in the Sea of Japan between it and the Korean Peninsula. There was a similar image in National Geographic a few months back that pointed it out. The cause? Fishing vessels. No, I'm serious. The waters off southern Japan are the most heavily fished in the world.

Another interesting area on the map is the bright spot in southern Nigeria. While there are a couple of major cities as well, the primary source is oil fields.

Though I don't know the source, I'd have to guess that the Faukland Islands' brightness is due to another non-city based source. Anyone have any ideas?

tom

[Undertoad]

This is the smaller version, and the larger version - which is 2400x1200, just HUGE - is HERE.

That image is also 486k in size and will take forever to display on most people's connections. But when it does... well damn!

This is a NASA image if I recall, made by putting together tons of nighttime satellite images. It's also available as a wall poster.

Check out the Nile, little dots in Greenland and a big spot in N. Alaska.

[jaguar]

bah - beat me to it =)

[Katkeeper]

Tony, that is even more awesome! I see the Falkland problem has disappeared.

Anyone notice that the Nile River shows as a distinct line in both images?

[Count Zero]

Originally posted by Katkeeper
Tony, that is even more awesome! I see the Falkland problem has disappeared.

The Falkland Islands are much smaller than the red and yellow blob that is shown in the first map, which is very weird. The second map makes much more sense.

But I think I figured out what the problem is. The first map shows night sky brightness *pollution*. So it measures the ratio of artificial versus natural brightness. The bigger the ratio, the more intense is the pollution, but not necessarily brighter.

The second map seems to be only a photograph.

[russotto]

Originally posted by modernhamlet
If you look at southern Japan, you'll notice that the densest area (lots of red and white) is actually in the Sea of Japan between it and the Korean Peninsula. There was a similar image in National Geographic a few months back that pointed it out. The cause? Fishing vessels. No, I'm serious. The waters off southern Japan are the most heavily fished in the world.
tom

Another interesting thing about that area. See the no-pollution area just above it (and no-light area, except for one spot, in the other image)? That's not water. That's North Korea.

[dynamo]

Another interesting point about these pictures...after looking at them, would you believe one THIRD of the world's population was in China and India?

[jet_silver]

Sometimes images like this are misleading. The idea that 1/3 of people live in China and India isn't contradicted by the relative lack of illumination. I believe it was Buckminster Fuller who developed the metric that standard of living increases in direct ratio to the power available per capita. The complete conclusion is: 1/3 of people, most of whom have a low standard of living, live in China and India.

Another, more trivial example: the Belgians put a hell of a lot of light onto their highways. It actually shows up in pictures. You'd think, based on illumination, there were more people in Belgium than there are.

[dynamo]

Originally posted by jet_silver
Sometimes images like this are misleading. The idea that 1/3 of people live in China and India isn't contradicted by the relative lack of illumination. I believe it was Buckminster Fuller who developed the metric that standard of living increases in direct ratio to the power available per capita. The complete conclusion is: 1/3 of people, most of whom have a low standard of living, live in China and India.

no, I don't think I was misled, I was drawing out the same conclusion as yours (you just said it more bluntly). I thought it interesting that the 260 million people in the US produce this massive glare of light (at least on the eastern side of the US) while 2 billion people in India and China hardly make a mark.

[Hubris Boy]

Originally posted by dynamo

I thought it interesting that the 260 million people in the US produce this massive glare of light (at least on the eastern side of the US) while 2 billion people in India and China hardly make a mark.

I dunno... they both look pretty well-illuminated in Tony's photo. A big chunk of China's dark, but that's because a big chunk of China isn't good for much... mountains or desert. Only about 10-15% of the land will actually produce food, and most of the billion or so Chinese live there.

I could sit and look at these photos for hours! There's always some strange new detail jumping out at you. Has anyone noticed how clearly the line of the Trans-Siberian railroad shows up? Or how the lights of the oil fields near Prudhoe Bay, Alaska stand out?