I came across this on facebook earlier. I love the fact that you can zoom in pretty far down and pick out individual towns like Berlin, WI. When you click on the website, it will be centered over Europe. If you left hold and pan left, you will get to the US portion. I just posted this because of it being cool.
http://www.blue-marble.de/nightlights/2012
Anyone else have other maps of this type?
Can we use this map to determine whether or not a particular highway serves a particular city?
Quote from: kphoger on January 24, 2013, 03:38:06 PM
Can we use this map to determine whether or not a particular highway serves a particular city?
:pan:
Holy cow! Check out the Nile delta!
this totally validates my belief that US-81 is the divider between east and west.
Quote from: agentsteel53 on January 24, 2013, 04:19:59 PM
this totally validates my belief that US-81 is the divider between east and west.
What's interesting is that the light barrier (if you will) goes north into North Dakota and then takes a west-northwest bent toward the Rocky Mountains on the Alberta-British Columbia border. Almost as if the Prairies are an extension of what is south and east of them. Then the barrier goes south of the Upper Peninsula and through the Great Lakes and the Lower Peninsula into Ontario. After that, it goes northeastward toward Quebec City and then southward to the Atlantic Ocean through Maine.
I'm gonna guess that in northwest North Dakota is where all the oilfields are. same with the parts of west Texas that are lit up.
what about in the water east of Argentina? more oil?
Quote from: agentsteel53 on January 24, 2013, 05:14:54 PMwhat about in the water east of Argentina? more oil?
Not sure about that--the Falklands have offshore oil (which is one reason Argentina would really like to have them back from Britain, but not enough to risk a second Falklands War), but the density of those lights does not remotely resemble that of the Gulf of Mexico, which has plenty of offshore oil production.
Quote from: agentsteel53 on January 24, 2013, 05:14:54 PM
I'm gonna guess that in northwest North Dakota is where all the oilfields are. same with the parts of west Texas that are lit up.
what about in the water east of Argentina? more oil?
I'm guessing those are the few clouds they couldn't escape capturing, which got amplified by the same process as the actual lights.
Quote from: J N Winkler on January 24, 2013, 05:24:09 PM
Quote from: agentsteel53 on January 24, 2013, 05:14:54 PMwhat about in the water east of Argentina? more oil?
Not sure about that--the Falklands have offshore oil
Only recently discovered - not sure they've done anything more than exploratory works.
Quote(which is one reason Argentina would really like to have them back from Britain,
The warmongering and attempts to deny the Falklands self-determination from Buenos Aires started back up again when they discovered oil. Of course, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner's approval rating being about the same as Congress' has a lot to do with it (and it's a strategy that's not really working).
Not that the idea of Argentina taking them 'back' makes sense anyway, especially since their first rule was nicking it off of someone else (USA or France, can't remember) while uninhabited, and the actual rule wasn't effective as the residents (all Argentine) rejected the government the mainland wanted - most of them welcomed the British returning to take back the islands and stayed, and the governor probably was happy to see the British as it meant he could return home with an excuse as to why he wasn't ruling those islands (rather than 'fess up to the mutiny).
Quote from: agentsteel53 on January 24, 2013, 05:14:54 PM
I'm gonna guess that in northwest North Dakota is where all the oilfields are.
That dense? Wow.
Quote from: kphoger on January 24, 2013, 03:54:26 PM
Holy cow! Check out the Nile delta!
And for something kind of creepy, look at North Korea.
Quote from: wphiii on January 24, 2013, 09:03:54 PM
Quote from: agentsteel53 on January 24, 2013, 05:14:54 PM
I'm gonna guess that in northwest North Dakota is where all the oilfields are.
That dense? Wow.
Bakken Shale Oil Field. I believe ND has the lowest unemployment in the US right now, that being a big reason.
The Power River Basin coal mines in northeast WY are lit up, too, and Alaska's north slope.
Quote from: wphiii on January 24, 2013, 09:13:47 PM
Quote from: kphoger on January 24, 2013, 03:54:26 PM
Holy cow! Check out the Nile delta!
And for something kind of creepy, look at North Korea.
Interesting how North Korea is all dark, while Vietnam is much more normal. Maybe a unified communist Korea would have looked more like Nam.
The other area of light that through me for a loop was the huge area of eastern Western Australia where there is not supposed to be any population. I am guessing oil fields or natural gas plants as well.
Quote from: NE2 on January 24, 2013, 11:59:22 PM
Interesting how North Korea is all dark, while Vietnam is much more normal. Maybe a unified communist Korea would have looked more like Nam.
A unified communist Korea would have to go through a series of economic reforms in the mid 80's as well (see Vietnam's Đổi Mới (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doi_Moi)). Hell, it doesn't even have to be a communist state either. I hope for a unified Korea in the future, but the state of affairs would have to drastically improve for NK before any kind of unification can happen. I'd love to see how South Korea's freeway system would expand in a unified country.
Quote from: NE2 on January 24, 2013, 11:59:22 PM
Quote from: wphiii on January 24, 2013, 09:13:47 PM
Quote from: kphoger on January 24, 2013, 03:54:26 PM
Holy cow! Check out the Nile delta!
And for something kind of creepy, look at North Korea.
Interesting how North Korea is all dark, while Vietnam is much more normal. Maybe a unified communist Korea would have looked more like Nam.
I doubt it. The same crazy dictators who rule North Korea would rule the entire peninsula. I'd rather see what a unified democratic Korea would look like. That would be as ablaze in light as Japan and make a contrast with China's Manchuria next door.
Damn...my Christmas lights are THAT bright???!!!
Quote from: Milepost61 on January 24, 2013, 11:55:51 PM
Quote from: wphiii on January 24, 2013, 09:03:54 PM
Quote from: agentsteel53 on January 24, 2013, 05:14:54 PM
I'm gonna guess that in northwest North Dakota is where all the oilfields are.
That dense? Wow.
Bakken Shale Oil Field. I believe ND has the lowest unemployment in the US right now, that being a big reason.
The Power River Basin coal mines in northeast WY are lit up, too, and Alaska's north slope.
See the swath of lights that passes south of San Antonio to the border? That's another shale play.
Quote from: Brandon on January 25, 2013, 07:09:42 AM
Quote from: NE2 on January 24, 2013, 11:59:22 PM
Quote from: wphiii on January 24, 2013, 09:13:47 PM
Quote from: kphoger on January 24, 2013, 03:54:26 PM
Holy cow! Check out the Nile delta!
And for something kind of creepy, look at North Korea.
Interesting how North Korea is all dark, while Vietnam is much more normal. Maybe a unified communist Korea would have looked more like Nam.
I doubt it. The same crazy dictators who rule North Korea would rule the entire peninsula. I'd rather see what a unified democratic Korea would look like. That would be as ablaze in light as Japan and make a contrast with China's Manchuria next door.
On the other hand, North Korea's obsessive need to try to prove themselves as a fully communist state is probably motivated by the existence of South Korea. They simply don't want to look bad compared to South Korea, so they likely are they way they are out of spite - they don't want to admit that things are better in South Korea, and trying to become more like South Korea would be the ultimate defeat as far as they're concerned. I think North Korea would have developed quite differently were that dynamic not in play.
They would also likely be less paranoid too. They've technically been at war with their next-door neighbor for their entire existence. We like to think of the Korean War as over, but it isn't.