How many rivers can you pick out in this picture?

[bdh21]

http://atimes01.atimes.com/atimes/images/earth_night.jpg

[Jarhead]

Not many. The Nile is pretty clear, but in most cases, I think the routes of surface travel are more clear. The East and West coast interstate corridors are pretty clear. The lights are brightest in the more densely populated areas. That explains the Nile river basin, and there is only a faint hint of the Amazon, but the travel routes and very dense urban ares are what I see mostly.

[Udaman]

No way does India have that kind of light coverage. Not even close. Around Bombay and New Dheli there would be a bunch, but the rest of the country would have nothing.

Picture is a fake.

[-jk]

No way does India have that kind of light coverage. Not even close. Around Bombay and New Dheli there would be a bunch, but the rest of the country would have nothing.

Picture is a fake.

Is NASA faking, too? Of course, they faked the moon landing...

The picture looks like the one found here:

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap001127.html

-jk

[hc5duke]

Is NASA faking, too? Of course, they faked the moon landing...

The picture looks like the one found here:

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap001127.html

-jk

Not really "fake" but it's clearly photoshopped (or whatever tool they use at NASA), since a picture taken at the same time would only have roughly half of the world lit up like that. Ah, the APOD page says "The above image is actually a composite of hundreds of pictures made by the orbiting DMSP satellites." APOD is one of my favorite links from digg.

[ForeverBlowingBubbles]

finally, we can find the island!!! hold on flight 815... hehe.

[pamtar]

The pic is not fake. Kind of.

Its a composite of all the nighttime radiation emission - not light. Plus, its been amplified to show even small traces of radiation. The point is not to show where the lights are on but where people are - based on the energy emitted. Think of it as a series of grids, or cells. Each cell is measured separately at the required intensity. It is then added to the composite where it is amplified until it is relevant in the picture. Just like climate modeling.

Thats why you can only see the Nile.

[Exiled_Devil]

I hav ea similar picture on my home computer - maybe the same - I need to check on it when I get home.

[Lavabe]

When were the photos taken? I am curious as to the light speck at the northern tip of Madagascar. The only light there is from a lighthouse. I mean seriously; fewer than 150 people live 8 km away from there, in the closest village.

Hmm... isn't the Rio de la Plata (Argentina/Uruguay) depicted? OKAY, so technically we're talking an estuary, but there's a river there coming out to the Atlantic. There may be a lot of neighboring towns that are responsible for the light.

Cheers,
Lavabe

[YmoBeThere]

Is NASA faking, too? Of course, they faked the moon landing...

The picture looks like the one found here:

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap001127.html

-jk

Of course they are faking...I mean they faked the sonic booms I heard when the shuttle was reentering from orbit.

[camion]

Even though the data was seriously massaged to create that image it is one of my favorites. I used it or a very similar one as my desktop for several years. I also love the myriad Hubble telescope pics.