NASA interactive sheds light on mystery WA lights

Updated

NASA has released satellite images to explain the mystery lights that showed up across Western Australia in its black marble images of the Earth at night.

Australia at night (left) | Burn scars from bushfires (right) © NASA

While the lights of the capital cities were clearly visible in the images NASA released this month, viewers were more interested in swathes of light appearing across largely uninhabited parts of Australia.

At the time the space agency said the lights were caused by "wildfires", and the new map shows areas of burnt-out land across Australia in April that largely correlate with the visible patches.

"The extent of the lighting in the Outback and bush country is a function of composite imaging. Fires and other lights that were detected on one day were integrated into the composite, multi-day picture despite being temporary phenomena," NASA said in a statement.

And ultimately, the new images of Earth at night are ripe for new discoveries. It's easy to say that lands are uninhabited or barren - that there's nothing out there to make light. But the satellite says there is light, so we should probably go take a look at what we have been overlooking or simply could not see before. NASA statement

"Because different lands burned at different times that the satellite passed over, the cumulative result is the appearance of a massive blaze. But while the cities are fixed, the fires were temporary, moveable features. The night lights data set is a scientific work in progress, and the maps will be refined and improved over time."

NASA said while fires were responsible for many of the lights, it could also have been caused by other sources.

"Aside from the fires, some of the night lights appearing in uninhabited areas can be attributed to natural gas flares, lightning, oil drilling or mining operations, and fishing boats - all of which can show up as points of light," it said.

"One example is natural gas drilling in the Bakken Formation in North Dakota; another is the fishing boats plying the seas of Asia."

The space agency said the images should encourage people to question what is considered uninhabited.

"And ultimately, the new images of Earth at night are ripe for new discoveries. It's easy to say that lands are uninhabited or barren - that there's nothing out there to make light. But the satellite says there is light, so we should probably go take a look at what we have been overlooking or simply could not see before," he said.

'The black marble'

Use the map controls to zoom and pan around the image.

Map: "Black Marble" imagery, showing the planet at night. (NASA, NOAA, Google)

The global view has been dubbed 'the black marble', a reference to the famous 'blue marble' photograph taken in 1972.

It is constructed from cloud-free night images taken by a NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellite.

Gallery

You can also explore our gallery of some key images from the satellite view of the Earth at night.

Video

This video released by NASA shows a fly-over of the Earth at night.

Topics: astronomy-space, wa

First posted