# New NASA night view of US - what are those things? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 7, 2012, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-nasa-night-view-of-us-what-are-those-things/643348 "2012-12-07T21:02:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Desert\_Nomad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desert_nomad/32/177_2.png) [@Desert\_Nomad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desert_Nomad)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2012, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-nasa-night-view-of-us-what-are-those-things/643348/21 "2012-12-08T05:59:26Z")
Have a look at North Korea vs South Korea. I’ve been to both countries… and yes, North Korea is very dark (and very quiet) at night. ---
**Author:** ![mascaroni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dc4da7/32.png) [@mascaroni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mascaroni)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2012, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-nasa-night-view-of-us-what-are-those-things/643348/22 "2012-12-08T06:53:18Z")
> [@GreasyJack](#): > > …do you remember there being a major metropolitan area in western North Dakota? That struck me as odd too. An electrical storm maybe? ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2012, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-nasa-night-view-of-us-what-are-those-things/643348/23 "2012-12-08T09:18:59Z")
> [@CC](#): > > Nasa’s site explains the different frequencies and types of data that go into the construction of such an image. There’s a whole chapter in Denis Wood’s 1990s book _The Power of Maps_ about this. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2012, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-nasa-night-view-of-us-what-are-those-things/643348/25 "2012-12-08T12:17:21Z")
> [@MikeS](#): > > As to why they’re roughly evenly spaced, I expect it would have something to do with the settlement patterns of states like Iowa, and specifically how it was divided up into counties and where the county seats were chosen to be. But that’s just speculation on my part. > [@Skammer](#): > > In many areas, the evenly spaced towns are a relica of the steam locomotive age. Steam locomotives required regular servicing to take on fuel and water, so these stops were evenly spaced along the railroad. These were accompanied by small whistle-stop stations and amenities for the train crews, and local communities gradually grew around these railroad stops. Growing up in western Minnesota, the highway roughly paralleled the railroad line, and there were towns regularly spaced along there. I was told the reason for the regular spacing was to pickup/drop off freight. The towns grew up around stations, and stations were placed so that a farmer could get to one in a horse-drawn wagon, and then get home again before dark. So they are placed at something less than a half-days travel by horse and wagon apart. I think that’s a more likely explanation, since the towns are much closer together than would be needed for steam locomotive re-supply – with tenders, they can go 40-60 miles between stops. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2012, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-nasa-night-view-of-us-what-are-those-things/643348/26 "2012-12-08T13:42:11Z")
> [@mascaroni](#): > > That struck me as odd too. An electrical storm maybe? Already explained upthread - those are gas flares from the oil and natural gas fields. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2012, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-nasa-night-view-of-us-what-are-those-things/643348/27 "2012-12-08T16:58:03Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > Growing up in western Minnesota, the highway roughly paralleled the railroad line, and there were towns regularly spaced along there. I was told the reason for the regular spacing was to pickup/drop off freight. The towns grew up around stations, and stations were placed so that a farmer could get to one in a horse-drawn wagon, and then get home again before dark. So they are placed at something less than a half-days travel by horse and wagon apart. > > I think that’s a more likely explanation, since the towns are much closer together than would be needed for steam locomotive re-supply – with tenders, they can go 40-60 miles between stops. True. See the Christaller and Losch economic geography explanations mentioned above. Probably a good overview in Wikipedia under “Central Place Theory.” ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2012, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-nasa-night-view-of-us-what-are-those-things/643348/28 "2012-12-08T20:19:26Z")
Why are these being touted as such a cool thing? Haven’t we seen this sort of thing for decades? Don’t get me wrong, their cool, but am I missing something about these pics that we haven’t seen before? ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2012, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-nasa-night-view-of-us-what-are-those-things/643348/29 "2012-12-08T20:35:02Z")
I posted the original question, and I had NOT seen those features in earlier NASA pictures. Maybe you had. This is why I raised the issue. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2012, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-nasa-night-view-of-us-what-are-those-things/643348/30 "2012-12-08T20:45:40Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Why are these being touted as such a cool thing? Haven’t we seen this sort of thing for decades? Don’t get me wrong, their cool, but am I missing something about these pics that we haven’t seen before? As I understand it , these images are making the news because they are the first publicly released night-side Earth images from the [VIIRS](http://npp.gsfc.nasa.gov/viirs.html) instrument on the [Suomi NPP](http://npp.gsfc.nasa.gov/) satellite. From the [NASA page](http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/NPP/news/earth-at-night.html): “The new sensor, the day-night band of the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), is sensitive enough to detect the nocturnal glow produced by Earth’s atmosphere and the light from a single ship in the sea. Satellites in the U.S. Defense Meteorological Satellite Program have been making observations with low-light sensors for 40 years. But the VIIRS day-night band can better detect and resolve Earth’s night lights.” So it’s the same _sort_ of observation that’s been done before, but with better sensitivity and resolution. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2012, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-nasa-night-view-of-us-what-are-those-things/643348/31 "2012-12-08T21:53:05Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > As I understand it , these images are making the news because they are the first publicly released night-side Earth images from the [VIIRS](http://npp.gsfc.nasa.gov/viirs.html) instrument on the [Suomi NPP](http://npp.gsfc.nasa.gov/) satellite. From the [NASA page](http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/NPP/news/earth-at-night.html): > > “The new sensor, the day-night band of the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), is sensitive enough to detect the nocturnal glow produced by Earth’s atmosphere and the light from a single ship in the sea. Satellites in the U.S. Defense Meteorological Satellite Program have been making observations with low-light sensors for 40 years. But the VIIRS day-night band can better detect and resolve Earth’s night lights.” > > So it’s the same _sort_ of observation that’s been done before, but with better sensitivity and resolution. Note too, that this incredible whole-earth picture is a creation from several months worth of night time shots. They digitally combined shots of each section, picking ones where that were clear and with no cloud cover. There’s nearly always clouds covering parts of the earth on any one day. (Plus, obviously, you can’t get it all in one shot – it isn’t night time over the whole earth at once!) ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2012, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-nasa-night-view-of-us-what-are-those-things/643348/32 "2012-12-08T22:28:27Z")
Wow, it really puts more emphasis on how vastly empty some midwest and mountain states are. The large town/small city I grew up in in New York, which currently has fewer than 30,000 residents including tiny suburbs, is HUGE compared to many of the isolated blips out there. ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2012, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-nasa-night-view-of-us-what-are-those-things/643348/33 "2012-12-08T22:37:27Z")
> [@MikeS](#): > > …As to why they’re roughly evenly spaced, I expect it would have something to do with the settlement patterns of states like Iowa, and specifically how it was divided up into counties and where the county seats were chosen to be… That’s quite insightful, I think, particularly when you look at a map of Iowa that shows the counties. They are almost perfectly evenly drawn and spaced. [http://www.cvcia.org/content/wealth.transfer/index.html](http://www.cvcia.org/content/wealth.transfer/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2012, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-nasa-night-view-of-us-what-are-those-things/643348/34 "2012-12-08T22:40:59Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > Wow, it really puts more emphasis on how vastly empty some midwest and mountain states are. The large town/small city I grew up in in New York, which currently has fewer than 30,000 residents including tiny suburbs, is HUGE compared to many of the isolated blips out there. A person from the west would almost certainly have the opposite take, that the area east of the Mississippi looks dreadfully crowded. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2012, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-nasa-night-view-of-us-what-are-those-things/643348/35 "2012-12-08T23:04:55Z")
[quote=“GreasyJack, post:2, topic:643348”] Yeah, the lights in the Gulf are probably gas flares off oil rigs. [./QUOTE] Lightning is also a possibility. ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-nasa-night-view-of-us-what-are-those-things/643348/36 "2012-12-09T01:23:59Z")
The resolution of this shot is noticeably better than prior ones. For one, note the faint blueish tint to the empty areas of the West: that’s reflected moonlight. Also, in the West look to the lines that mark the Interstate highways… that is picking up car and semi headlights from space, man! I’m pretty familiar with the area around Janesville, Wisconsin and noted that this is the first time I’ve seen Janesville and the smaller town to its immediate northeast, Milton resolved as separate blobs of light. There’s also a small dot of light north of Janesville and west of Milton that is almost certainly the lights from a rest area on I-90. And the gas flares… quite striking (and a little frightening when you consider the climate change implications) in their own right. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-nasa-night-view-of-us-what-are-those-things/643348/37 "2012-12-09T01:30:26Z")
> [@For You](#): > > A person from the west would almost certainly have the opposite take, that the area east of the Mississippi looks dreadfully crowded. What i had in mind was the occasional geographical argument where people look at a map and say “wow, look at this huge sea of red engulfing such a tiny area of blue! We really are a silent majority!” ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-nasa-night-view-of-us-what-are-those-things/643348/38 "2012-12-09T01:42:10Z")
> [@For You](#): > > A person from the west would almost certainly have the opposite take, that the area east of the Mississippi looks dreadfully crowded. > [@Ludovic](#): > > What i had in mind was the occasional geographical argument where people look at a map and say “wow, look at this huge sea of red engulfing such a tiny area of blue! We really are a silent majority!” No, no, no… They started shooting the mosaics in the west first, then as they approached Mississippi, everybody began decorating their houses and businesses with Christmas lights and finished the project just recently. “Awww, everybody look at America’s christmas lights! Boy, Canada is gonna be so envious.” ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Downtown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mr\_Downtown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Downtown)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-nasa-night-view-of-us-what-are-those-things/643348/39 "2012-12-09T04:53:57Z")
Today I noticed another unexpectedly bright area: Hazard County and surrounding coal-mining areas of eastern Kentucky and western West Virginia. There must be open-pit strip mining that goes on at night, same as Australia. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-nasa-night-view-of-us-what-are-those-things/643348/40 "2012-12-09T04:58:38Z")
I thought that was a map of counties that voted for Obama in the light and the ones that voted for Romney in the dark. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-nasa-night-view-of-us-what-are-those-things/643348/41 "2012-12-09T06:01:30Z")
> [@fiddlesticks](#): > > The resolution of this shot is noticeably better than prior ones. For one, note the faint blueish tint to the empty areas of the West: that’s reflected moonlight… What’s the descending, darker Italy-ish-looking blob from Washington state? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-nasa-night-view-of-us-what-are-those-things/643348.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-nasa-night-view-of-us-what-are-those-things/643348.md?page=3)