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Composite Of Earth At Night
crmartin writes "Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is an incredible composite image of Earth from space at night. Actually a composite from many pictures from the Defense Meteorological Satellites Program (DMSP), it's like a skeletal view of the Earth in tiny lights. If you really like it, there are hi-res images up to a 40 megabyte TIFF."
interestingly, we clearly see northkorea (black) surrounded by light (southkorea and china)
I have had this as my desktop for over a year now... I suppose its nice to show it to more people, but its hardly newsworthy...
All that light headed skywards when it was intended for the ground. Apart from the waste of valuable resources good old Mr Alien can see us!
For problems, seek only the simplest solution, complexity brings with it more problems.
Anyone else notice the 2002 date on the image?
It's quite sobering, actually. You look at the US and Japan and Western Europe blazing away, and then realise there are people elsewhere who have literally *nothing*, not even something as 'simple' as electric light.
You must think in Russian.
gee, that's kind of negative. I looked at it as there are still some places without light polution.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
Actually this is gives just a rough idea of what light pollution you might experience. If you want to find out more, you can look at the The World Atlas of the Artificial Night Sky Brightness.
If you are in north america, the Clear Sky Clock gives you an quick way to see what light pollution is like on your clock having extracted sections from the atlas. For instance the Montreal clock clock gives this map for Montreal. Clearly not a great location for astronomy.
But the worst, is to realise that this loss of light results in actual light pollution since much of this electricity has been generated with fossil fuels which produces the CO, NOX, CO2 and eventually SMOG.
It must be how the stars see us at night.
Some guesses:
1. This is a composite, which means that the picture were taken at different times. Maybe is just wasn't as dark when they took the western picture.
2. There just aren't as many people in the western half of the US as there are in the eastern half.
yadda
Then you realize that someone from there would think WE have nothing, because we don't own ANY livestock whatsoever.
'Standards' in computing only impress those who are impressed by things like 'standards'.
Light pollution is overlooked by most of the populace, but to us amatuer astronomers it is a royal pain in the ass. I now have to travel 3 hours into the rural sticks to get a glimpse of the Milky Way (I'd have to get on a plane and travel to Africa to enjoy it in its full glory). I'd be willing to bet that half the US population has never even seen the galactic clouds of the Milky Way ... which is a shame because it borders on a religous experience.
Not to sound like Smokey the Bear but please Please do your part in help preventing light pollution and save a little extra in your monthly energy costs in the process. Use motion sensors for your outside security lights and timers for walkway lighting. Blinds and curtains to prevent inside lighting from leaking out into the neighborhood.
You'd be suprised how many backyard astronomers there are!!
More info on the problem:
International Dark Sky Association
if you were an alien why on earth would you choose to fly around in the airspace of one of the most paranoid countries on Earth who also has probably the most sophisticated equipment to spot you and then spend your time on the ground cattle rustling and wandering around the farms and bedrooms of dumb hick rednecks ?
I bet you think that makes the alien stories look like silly fiction. Well I got news for you buddy, it don't. They exist, and that's exactly what they do. The sheer implausibility of it proves that it must be true - after all, if we could understand their motives, they wouldn't be very alien now would they?
I'm sure Launceston in Northen Tasmania Australia shouldn't be very bright either considering its population is less than 80,000. Yet it outshines many major cities.
;-)
My guess would be skylights, tall buildings with lit roofs, poor street lighting design and reflected light from concrete white squares and pavements.
Ideally an extremely well designed city should emit no light into space
OK, if you were an alien, where would you land? Somehow anywhere in the United States seems to be not a very bright idea. Stupid Roswell aliens...
An interesting question. Depends on the goals of the mission, I suspect.
A couple of profiles thrown off the top of my head:
- Make contact with global leaders
Assuming the aliens make judgments in the same way we do, I would go for either Eastern USA, Western Europe or Japan. If an assumption is made of global government, Eastern USA looks better developed so I would aim for there. If the working assumption is continental governments, there seems to be a greater degree of centralisation in Western Europe, so I'd head for either Madrid or Paris, figuring that one of those two is likely to be the European administration centre. Probably Paris, due to its more central location.
- Study the behaviour of the technology possessing inhabitants of this world
I'd head for an area on the edge of a bright patch, but far enough away that I'm likely to be able to go unnoticed. West China, East Russia, and North Africa all look quite appealing, with little to distinguish between them. I'd probably visit all three, on the basis that there might be regional variation in behaviour.
"Check out the cool NASA pic"
inviting the response, with much wailing and gnashing of teeth:
"O Evil capitalists of the First World! Indulging in such wasteful light pollution! Bow your heads in shame!"
Left-wing socialist nutbags, if there's one thing you're good for it's pissing on *anyone's* parade, any time, for any reason. You boys are the reason Prozac was invented.
Max
My god carries a hammer. Your god died nailed to a tree. Any questions?
Converting the 3,268,616 byte TIFF to a PNG and recompressing it with optipng (both lossless steps) brings the file size down to 1,940,833 bytes. I would expect a similar reduction with the 40MB image (if it exists).
Omnes arx vestrum sunt adiuncta nobis.