You can’t literally see lights from space or whatever. If somewhere had less coverage on google maps you wouldn’t think it’s uninhabited, but for some reason, people irl seem to be constantly referring to this image as though it’s a literal picture. Mostly for ‘civilized’ reasons, but also light pollution and just other stuff. Maybe this just made the rounds on reddit or something?
You CAN see the lights from space and light pollution is a big problem.
I’m bothered by the large bright spot in West Siberia.
looks like there’s a lot of oil/gas wells in that region, they might have a lot of big lights set up for nighttime operations
It still seems way bigger than their energy production would require. That area is larger than all of Central Europe and just as brightly lit with a tiny fraction of the population.
to add to @Chronicon@hexbear.net’s comment, that region is quite far north and the image is mercator projection. the size is significantly exaggerated relative to lower latitudes, and 6 months of the year it’s “nighttime” so any industrial operations will need to be well lit.
I mean, when has the fossil fuel industry ever cared about wasting energy or light pollution?
Here’s a satellite view of like a 50km square (very ballpark) area:
every one of those white spots is some sort of extraction site, an oil/gas well, or a mine, or whatever, probably like 5 football fields in area minimum, and probably all brightly lit 24/7
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamalo-Nenets_Autonomous_Okrug
looks like its this area. Lots of resource extraction going on
i uhh, i thought you could see the lights from space?
https://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/SearchPhotos/photo.pl?mission=ISS028&roll=E&frame=33400
Those are taken with an 8-20 second shutter speed which takes in considerably more light. In some cases they actually take several dozen photos in the same spot then stitch them together as one picture, this brings out light considerably more than it is visible usually.
Here’s live video, you will see little to no light: https://youtu.be/DfEr5XCFNWM
that’s more bc of the poor quality the ISS main cam is versus the new EHDC camera, you can see lights at night on the higher res livestream camera
exactly. it takes quite a few seconds of exposure for most cameras to match a human eye’s low-light perception.
Yes but this is still a tiny amount of light compared to the composite images and slow shutter speed images intended to capture light. It’s the same technique as photographing epic pictures of stars and galaxies in the night sky.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
The most accurate map of light pollution regulations
people irl seem to be constantly referring to this image as though it’s a literal picture.
Did they forget about weather and time zones again?
