Thursday, April 2, 2009

Satellite Photo of Earth at Night

Shown below is a famous NASA image that is often called a "satellite photo of earth at night". It isn't really a "photo". Instead it is an image that was compiled using data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program. It is a map of the location of permanent lights on Earth's surface. Each white dot on the map represents the light of a city. The entire image is show below and we follow it with enlarged continents and commentary.
Satellite Photo of the World at Night

This map shows the geographic distribution of cities. It clearly shows that cities are concentrated in Europe, the eastern United States, Japan, China and India. It is a better map for showing the geography of night time electricity consumption for outdoor lighting than it is for showing the geography of population. For example: the eastern United States is very bright but the more densely populated areas of China and India are not nearly as bright in this image (NASA Image)
Satellite Photo of the United States at Night
This map shows the geographic distribution of night time lights in the United States, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. Strong lights occur in a strand that includes Washington, DC, Philadelphia, New Jersey, New York City and Boston. Most of the large cities of Canada are located within a couple hundred miles of the United States border. Chicago stands out on the shoreline of Lake Michigan and other major cities in the central states are collected by a network of highways. On the west coast, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego stand out. The coastlines of Florida and Puerto Rico are lined with bright cities. Finally, the cities of Hawaii and oil facilities of the north Alaska coast are also "visible from space"(NASA Image)
Satellite Photo of Europe and Africa at Night

Western Europe is aglow with night lights. This image clearly shows that the cities of Europe are along the coasts. The Mediterranean coasts of Italy, France and Spain are a solid line of light as is the southern shorelines of the Black and Caspian Seas. The Sahara of northern Africa and the jungles of south-central Africa are largely void of illuminated cities. One of the most striking features on this image is the high concentration of cities on the Nile River, downstream from the Aswan Dam( NASA Image)
Satellite Photo of South America at Night

The cities of South America are mainly concentrated on the southwestward-facing Atlantic coast, along the Pacific coast and northern Colombia and Venezuela. Large areas of the Amazon Basin are without bright cities and some of the night lights there might actually be the fires if deforestation and agricultural burning( NASA Image )
Satellite Photo of Asia and Australia at Night

Japan stands out on this satellite view of Asia at night, along with the west coast of Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Bangkok. The route of the Trans-Siberian Railroad can be seen as a light line across the otherwise dark area of northern Russia. High city densities in eastern China, Indonesia, India and the eastern coast of Australia can clearly be seen(NASA Image)

OUR GALAXY


Sensor Being Developed to Check for Life on Mars
NASA-funded researchers are refining a tool that could not only check for the faintest traces of life's molecular building blocks on Mars, but could also determine whether they have been produced by anything alive.

A recent slice of Mars from Opportunity at Victoria Crater

According to this former
The NASA image(Below) is duped as:"A Twisted Solar Eruptive Prominence"A huge eruption seen moving out from our sun in this condensed half-hour the-lapse sequence .The Earth could
easily fit in the "claw of the solar monstar"

Potentially Habitable Planet Found
The planet is just the right size might have water in liquid form and in galactic terma is relatively nearby at 120 trillon miles away but the star it closely orbits known as a "red dwarf" is much
smaller, dimmer an cooler than the sun.



WATERFALLS IN SRI LANKA

Sri Lanka is blessed with innumerable waterfalls. Sri Lanka has highest waterfall density in the world. There are some 100 rivers and streams in Sri Lanka. Radiating from the hills, fed by two half-yearly monsoons, these rivers rush down the rocky precipices and form spectacular waterfalls. Only some of these picturesque waterfalls can be viewed with ease, while others are located inside thick forests and around tea plantations.
Bambarakanda Waterfalls


St,Clair waterfall

Rawana Waterfall (Wellawaya road)

Dunhinda Waterfall
Diyaluma Waterfall in Bandarawela