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JIMRAT
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NASA Night Sky Wrong?

12/25/2013 9:21 PM

looking at NASA night vision of the planet Earth shows a bright patch of light for each of the capital cities in my part of the world ( Australia ), as expected BUT in the centre there are many patches that are larger than the coastal capitals. The population in these areas is measured in thousands of sq kilometres per person. Look at the Northern Territory border with Western Australia in the vicinity of Purnululu (The Bungle Bungles ) in Google Earth and view the Panoramio pictures around that area then go to the night view. You will clearly see that there is no way that there is that much light in that entire region. Are these images generated by infra red? There are no such light spots in other deserts, maybe they are cold at night where the Oz outback is still hot?Any thoughts?

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IdeaSmith
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#1

Re: NASA night sky wrong?

12/26/2013 3:15 AM

How about wild fires in the area?

Or big mining operations?

Or UFO's landing spots?

The capital city might have moved without you knowing or last but not least

big mining operations.

Merry Christmas!

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JIMRAT
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#4
In reply to #1

Re: NASA night sky wrong?

12/26/2013 9:17 PM

Thanks for the ideas.

Wild fires are possible. I don't know how to confirm that but it does seem to be a lot of fire. The only towns that show up are on the coast so all of the interior light is under question. The largest town in the area is again on the coast and its' population is 6,000 and again it doesn't show up. It is a mining town and port.

Mining. see above.

U.F.O. I think this is probably the most likely. If you would care to spread the word that I am organizing special tours to the region for a modest fee I would be grateful

Capital city has moved. Not only moved but grown in size by a factor of 10 for each splash of light. Maybe our far eastern cousins have moved in overnight without coastwatch noticing. Now that does seem plausible.

Merry Xmas to you and yours.

Jim.

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Usbport
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#2

Re: NASA night sky wrong?

12/26/2013 7:36 AM

I found this image that had the caption 'Wildfires Light Up Western Australia'. Is this what you saw?

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JIMRAT
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#3
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Re: NASA night sky wrong?

12/26/2013 8:57 PM

That's the one. The lighted area at 7 o'clock, looking at the western half only, on the coast is the capital city, Perth, with a population of 2mil+. At 10 o'clock is a large town of about 60k pop. The largest mining town of Kalgoorlie doesn't even show as a faint dot. If you now go to Google Earth and look at the Panoramio pictures anywhere in that vast area you will see that there is nothing but low scrub for most of it.

I speculate that the light may be hot rock, perhaps iron ore, but I don't know so I am asking for any ideas.

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JIMRAT
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#5
In reply to #2

Re: NASA night sky wrong?

12/26/2013 9:34 PM

Just looked at your post again and saw the first line ...I found this image that had the caption 'Wildfires Light Up Western Australia'. Is this what you saw?

Yes it is but I question whether the caption is correct. It is the Nasa image of the night sky with the caption added but is there any daylight evidence of wildfires to corroberate? Judging by the size of Perth each of these 'fires' is covering an area larger than 5000 sq kilometers. That would make a lot of smoke, enough to be seen.

Do you have any other thoughts?

Jim.

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Oraka
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#6
In reply to #5

Re: NASA night sky wrong?

12/26/2013 10:49 PM

Why don't you ask NASA?
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eltech
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#7

Re: NASA Night Sky Wrong?

12/26/2013 11:29 PM

Thats the mining Boom, a few more months and it will be all dark again.
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masu
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#8

Re: NASA Night Sky Wrong?

12/27/2013 6:38 AM

"Wildfires Light Up Western Australia"

Just think when was the last time you saw the entire continent cloud free?

The answer is never and as a result to get an image like this where the entire image coverage is cloud free they have to use composite images often made over a period of several days or longer.

So, the answer is that they are indeed bush fires but not necessarily all burning at the same time and one fire may actually be where the fire has travelled over a period of days. It's a bit of a cheat and yes they do use false colours to emphasize things but it does give you an idea of how prone to bush and grass fires Australia actually is and most of the fires in the image are fires in very arid areas so they are more likely fast burning grass fires or scrub fires as there is little to no true bushland in the regions that are lit up.

Going back about 20 years I used to commute from Adelaide to Darwin every month or so to work on computers in and around the Darwin region. Before the dry season sets in properly they deliberately light fires in a checkerboard fashion where each area would be burnt every second year and I can remember while driving to places like Pine Creek and Jabiru in the Kakadu National Park, seeing literally hundreds of deliberately lit fires that kept the dead plant material from building up to the point that if it were to catch fire the results would be catastrophic.

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JIMRAT
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#9
In reply to #8

Re: NASA Night Sky Wrong?

12/27/2013 9:57 PM

Thanks, my natural scepticism has clearly got in the way. Your explanation does indeed sound plausible. The original Image was, from memory, taken over 9 nights. Whilst this still means a lot of fires in a short time it is quite plausible for the reasons you gave. I will now go to the Nasa site and spend some hours looking for another night shot from a different season.

Thanks

Jim

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Theophilus Stark
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#10
In reply to #8

Re: NASA Night Sky Wrong?

01/20/2014 2:08 PM

A similar nighttime composite of the U.S. shows a HUGE patch of light in the Dakotas and a giant arc south of San Antonio, Texas.

Fracking.
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JIMRAT
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#11
In reply to #10

Re: NASA Night Sky Wrong?

01/22/2014 5:39 AM

fracking awesome. Oops forgot punctuation, Fracking, awesome.

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