# Where is all this nighttime lighting in Western Australia coming from? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 5, 2012, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-all-this-nighttime-lighting-in-western-australia-coming-from/643135 "2012-12-05T23:40:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2012, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-all-this-nighttime-lighting-in-western-australia-coming-from/643135/1 "2012-12-05T23:40:47Z")
[Here is a recent picture of the Earth at night as seen from space](http://news.yahoo.com/photos/satellite-images-of-earth-at-night-slideshow/nasa-satellite-photo-1830287179.html) (click on it for more detail). Unfortunately (for us astronomers and stargazers) it’s even brighter than before. My question, though, has to do with all those areas of light in what would seem to be western Australia. Any map of Australia demonstrates that there is very, very little development in west central Australia, and certainly no major urban centres. Look at [this](http://www.mapsofworld.com/australia/) for example. Yet, as [the shot from space at night reveals](http://news.yahoo.com/photos/satellite-images-of-earth-at-night-slideshow/nasa-satellite-photo-1830287179.html), there are lights there. Lots and lots of light. Where is it coming from? What is it due to? Thanks! ETA: [Here is a somewhat closer-up view](http://news.yahoo.com/photos/satellite-images-of-earth-at-night-slideshow/nasa-satellite-photo-1830296911.html) of Australia at night more readily showing the unexpected light sources. ---
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-all-this-nighttime-lighting-in-western-australia-coming-from/643135/2 "2012-12-06T00:18:24Z")
My guess is opencast mines operating 24/7. Do your light sources correlate [to this map of](http://www.miningaustralia.com.au/australian-mine-map)Australian mines (zoom in for better detail). My browser wouldn’t open your linked images for some reason. ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-all-this-nighttime-lighting-in-western-australia-coming-from/643135/3 "2012-12-06T01:06:22Z")
No idea, but [here](http://eoimages2.gsfc.nasa.gov/images/imagerecords/79000/79765/dnb_land_ocean_ice.2012.13500x13500.D2.jpg) is a huge 5MB close up of Australia taken from NASA [here](http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=79765). Whatever it is outshines all of Australia’s cities and goes against what you’d expect to see from their [population density](http://www.populationlabs.com/Australia_Population.asp). They don’t appear to be shaped like cities. [These](http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/fires/main/world/20121205-australia-npp.html) wildfires have the same look but that would be a lot of territory to be on fire. ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-all-this-nighttime-lighting-in-western-australia-coming-from/643135/4 "2012-12-06T01:44:54Z")
There are **very** high resolution versions of the pictures also available. [Here](http://eoimages2.gsfc.nasa.gov/images/imagerecords/79000/79765/dnb_land_ocean_ice.2012.13500x13500.D2.jpg). It is clear that these huge splodges are not man-made - but are probably clouds. The area of country these splodges cover is utterly barren. There isn’t anything there that could burn. The capital cities are easy to see, and they are much smaller than many of these clouds. Ninja’d on the image. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-all-this-nighttime-lighting-in-western-australia-coming-from/643135/5 "2012-12-06T01:54:40Z")
Many people people are not aware of this but most marsupial species are naturally bioluminescent. If you give me ten minutes, you can look this up on Wikipedia. ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-all-this-nighttime-lighting-in-western-australia-coming-from/643135/6 "2012-12-06T01:56:55Z")
> [@Francis\_Vaughan](#): > > Ninja’d on the image. 😃 For once I was the ninja, and not the ninjaee. ---
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-all-this-nighttime-lighting-in-western-australia-coming-from/643135/7 "2012-12-06T02:13:17Z")
> [@Francis\_Vaughan](#): > > There are **very** high resolution versions of the pictures also available. [Here](http://eoimages2.gsfc.nasa.gov/images/imagerecords/79000/79765/dnb_land_ocean_ice.2012.13500x13500.D2.jpg). It is clear that these huge splodges are not man-made - but are probably clouds. The area of country these splodges cover is utterly barren. There isn’t anything there that could burn. The capital cities are easy to see, and they are much smaller than many of these clouds. > > Ninja’d on the image. 😃 So there are clouds over Western Australia but none over the ocean or New Zealand? What light source are the clouds reflecting? I’m sticking with mining operations. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-all-this-nighttime-lighting-in-western-australia-coming-from/643135/8 "2012-12-06T02:20:30Z")
> [@lisiate](#): > > My guess is opencast mines operating 24/7. Do your light sources correlate [to this map of](http://www.miningaustralia.com.au/australian-mine-map)Australian mines (zoom in for better detail). My browser wouldn’t open your linked images for some reason. Good thought, and good link. But, alas, no. There doesn’t appear to be a correlation. (BTW, you should be able to find the image I linked to just by going to Yahoo News and searching for ‘Earth at night’ or something similar) ETA: Or, better yet, just try the high-res image linked to by **Fubaya** above. ---
**Author:** ![TATG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/50afbb/32.png) [@TATG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TATG)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-all-this-nighttime-lighting-in-western-australia-coming-from/643135/9 "2012-12-06T02:26:26Z")
[NASA reckons](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3YYwIsMHzwt=1m39s) they are “wildfires”. ---
**Author:** ![Twoflower](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/twoflower/32/22_2.png) [@Twoflower](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Twoflower)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-all-this-nighttime-lighting-in-western-australia-coming-from/643135/10 "2012-12-06T02:26:40Z")
I suspect a photographic artifact. A similar pic from [2000](http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap001127.html) shows no such lights in WA. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-all-this-nighttime-lighting-in-western-australia-coming-from/643135/11 "2012-12-06T02:35:37Z")
> [@TATG](#): > > [NASA reckons](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3YYwIsMHzwt=1m39s) they are “wildfires”. (At 1:40 in the linked video.) ---
**Author:** ![TATG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/50afbb/32.png) [@TATG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TATG)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-all-this-nighttime-lighting-in-western-australia-coming-from/643135/12 "2012-12-06T02:38:55Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > (At 1:40 in the linked video.) I stuffed the link up. [Direct link to 1:39](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3YYwIsMHzw&t=1m39s) of the video. ---
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-all-this-nighttime-lighting-in-western-australia-coming-from/643135/13 "2012-12-06T02:43:11Z")
The video is pretty conclusive, wildfires it is then. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-all-this-nighttime-lighting-in-western-australia-coming-from/643135/14 "2012-12-06T02:59:47Z")
> [@lisiate](#): > > The video is pretty conclusive, wildfires it is then. They must be huge. But what can be burning? Grass? Like **Francis Vaughan** notes above, I don’t think there are much in the way of forests there. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-all-this-nighttime-lighting-in-western-australia-coming-from/643135/15 "2012-12-06T03:18:35Z")
No forests there but there is significant vegetation. Fires are very common in the dry parts of Australia. Those photos were also taken during hundreds of orbits over many days. It is unlikely that all of those fires were burning at once. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-all-this-nighttime-lighting-in-western-australia-coming-from/643135/16 "2012-12-06T03:32:12Z")
> [@Twoflower](#): > > I suspect a photographic artifact. A similar pic from [2000](http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap001127.html) shows no such lights in WA. Actually, when you blow it up to full size (click on the reduced image at your link) it does. ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-all-this-nighttime-lighting-in-western-australia-coming-from/643135/17 "2012-12-06T04:58:47Z")
In retropsect they probably are fires. There is no forest there, but there are vast areas of semi-arid grassland. The detailed shape of the splodges is consistent with a fire front. In many places you can see the advancing front and the burnt out area behind - and a large illuminated cloud moving away from the front - consistent with smoke being driven ahead of the advancing front. A lot of inland Oz has an annual cycle of grass growth, dry-off and fire. (Although it is not reliable, years of drought can result in very little growth, and years of good rain lots.) I am surprised to see it extend so far south, and also surprised that the satellite caught what is a fairly transient phenomenon, but there it is. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-all-this-nighttime-lighting-in-western-australia-coming-from/643135/18 "2012-12-06T05:24:24Z")
[Wildfires can also be seen in satellite views of the western US,](http://news.mongabay.com/2012/0821-hance-wildfires-night-pod.html) ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-all-this-nighttime-lighting-in-western-australia-coming-from/643135/19 "2012-12-06T05:49:54Z")
To add, NASA’s site notes: > [@](#): > > VIIRS detects light in a range of wavelengths from green to near-infrared and uses filtering techniques to observe dim signals such as gas flares, auroras, wildfires, city lights, and reflected moonlight. In this case, auroras, **fires, and other stray light have been removed** to emphasize the city lights. However this contradicts the commentary in the video, and does not provide any other reasonable explanation. It does explain why grassfires can be seen - NASA have probably been doing a bit of curve tweaking to make them so bright compared to the cities. ---
**Author:** ![bluezooky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e8c25b/32.png) [@bluezooky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bluezooky)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-all-this-nighttime-lighting-in-western-australia-coming-from/643135/20 "2012-12-06T07:49:49Z")
There is more than twenty fires happening in WA as I type this, fires a big thing in Australia,you would easily see wide ranging grass fire from space. [http://sentinel.ga.gov.au/acres/sentinel/index.shtml](http://sentinel.ga.gov.au/acres/sentinel/index.shtml) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-all-this-nighttime-lighting-in-western-australia-coming-from/643135.md?page=2)