Two weeks ago, we published a new map of the Earth at night,
built by Earth Observatory designers together with colleagues at
the National Geophysical Data Center. That map—made possible by
a new NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) satellite—showed the footprint of human
civilization on the planet, as revealed by the lights we use to
brighten the darkness. But it turns out the map showed something
more. Astute readers noticed lights in areas that were thought
to be uninhabited. Many of those readers pointed to Western
Australia and asked: How can there be so much light there? The
top image above shows the night lights of Australia as observed
by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the
Suomi NPP satellite in April and October 2012. The composite
image includes manmade light sources and the light of wildfires.
The data were acquired over nine days in April 2012 and thirteen
days in October 2012, and it took the satellite 312 orbits and
2.5 terabytes of data t