APOD: Earth at Night (2012 Dec 07)

[cwrosner@aol.com]

The earth at night, October 5, 2008 seems quite abit brighter than this one taken on December 7, 2012

[geckzilla]

The earth at night, October 5, 2008 seems quite abit brighter than this one taken on December 7, 2012

Different satellites produce different results, I guess.

[Shadrack]

Hi All,
I am still at a loss as to a plausible explanation of the bright lights in Western Australia. There is literally no one out there where the lights are shown, not a living soul.
Major population centers with 1 to 4 million people resident can just be visualized, BUT to believe that the light sources shown "in the back of beyond" are actually out there is not believable.
Have a look on Google Earth in the same areas of Western Australia............. no one is out there!
How do you explain the lights?
Thanks,
Shadrack

[owlice]

Shadrack, please read this whole discussion; the lights in Western Australia are covered in it. Thanks.

[Shadrack]

Hi owlice,
I have read all of the discussion, feedback, explanations etc BUT still none of it is plausible. No explanation offered makes any sense. The Bush Fire scenario is unbelievable, as the Outback is empty....... much like Death Valley in California BUT it is hundreds of times bigger and there is no fuel to burn, just rocks, sand and more rocks and more sand and there is no one out there to produce a light of this magnitude. There are a few mining ventures but the size of the light distribution shown in "Earth at Night" is about a thousand kilometers wide, whereas a mining venture may extend for only a few kilometers. Confirmed, Plausible or Busted?
Yours in confusion,
Shadrack.

[owlice]

Shadrack, you are welcome to research it, then. I'm okay with NASA's answer (which is bolstered by information from other sources); if you're not, I doubt anything I say is going to make a difference.

[bystander]

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=80030

[owlice]

Thanks for that, bystander!

[CCheers]

I have finally caught up with your full explanation of the lights in uninhabited regions of Australia. I know you want to close the discussion, but I happened to browse through the "nighttime images of our fair planet". I find there the same image under a display that you call "City Lights of Asia and Australia". You say that auras, fires and other stray lights have been removed to emphasise city lights. Yet the fires remain prominent. Is there something wrong with your imaging and filtering techniques, or just your knowledge of geography?