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Europe at night (i.imgur.com)

submitted by Teckel22

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[–]studmuffffffin 38 points39 points  (22 children)

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There's a lot of cool stuff here. The nile, korea, how empty australia is, the himalayas, the tiny little dots in africa, a bunch of lights in the middle of nowhere in Russia. With seemingly the same light density as southern India.

[–]Bluenosedcoop 37 points38 points  (8 children)

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It really is hard to grasp just how empty Australia is till you actually get there and take a drive through some of the more isolated roads, I was in aus for 6 months doing some work and visiting family.

One job me and a friend had was to deliver some goods to a mining town called Newman in the middle of nowhere, We had to take a near 1400km drive from Perth and it really is amazing that at times you can travel 100s of km and not see one building or person at all, I knew it was empty before i went to aus but you don't truly realise it till you see it in person.

Also the lights in the middle of nowhere in Russia is due to Russias largest gas/oil fields.

[–]king_walnut 9 points10 points  (4 children)

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So there aren't any fuel stops or diners or anything along the massive roads? My car has a range of 400 miles, does that mean I wouldn't be able to drive it across Australia?

[–]Spenk009 13 points14 points  (0 children)

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You either take extra tanks along or you stick to your most efficient speed (highest gear at low revs). Also, he said 60s of miles (100s of kms), so your 400 mile range could be split up in two or three fillups on the 872,2 mile trip.

[–]Bluenosedcoop 12 points13 points  (1 child)

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Every couple of hundred kms yeah there is but in between just nothingness.

Just go on Gmaps and look at some of the roads and follow them, You will see how empty, Like the Great Northern Highway, Theres even points where the gmaps car has stopped.

[–]sofa_king_awesome 0 points1 point  (0 children)

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If the gmaps car stopped then you know its desolate.

[–]MisterHousey 4 points5 points  (0 children)

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Correct.

[–]anti_queue 6 points7 points  (0 children)

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Doesn't matter how often you do a long cross-country trip it's mandatory at some point to turn to your passenger and slowly say "It's a big country mate."

[–]studmuffffffin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

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Newman!

[–]Neebat 0 points1 point  (0 children)

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You can actually see I35 in Texas. (Houston is the bright blob on the west side of the gulf, and Dallas/Fortworth is the horizontally elongated blob near it. Austin and San Antonio are on the line south of Dallas.) Everything north and west of there looks like Australia.

[–]AlbrechtVonRoon 5 points6 points  (0 children)

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True, also, look at Spain and Portugal. Portugal seems to have quite a bit of light going on, whereas with Spain it mostly centres on Madrid

[–]curvedbanana 3 points4 points  (3 children)

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I am wondering what all that light is in west of Australia? There are no cities there. Mining possibly?

[–]studmuffffffin 3 points4 points  (0 children)

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It has to be. There are literally only two cities in that entire area.

[–]the_snook 0 points1 point  (0 children)

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Pretty sure last time this pic was posted the consensus was that it's some kind of reflection off clouds.

Either that or secret nuclear tests by Japanese doomsday cults.

[–]sonOFmatthew 0 points1 point  (0 children)

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I suppose maybe fires too?

[–]CaptainBeBop 2 points3 points  (5 children)

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Those are wild fires in the west interior of Australia.

[–]Helmet_Juice 0 points1 point  (4 children)

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No, they're not.

[–]CaptainBeBop 0 points1 point  (3 children)

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I'm a US wildland firefighter who has been to australia during north american winters to fight fires. And you?

[–]Helmet_Juice 0 points1 point  (2 children)

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I'm Australian. Those lights are in the middle of the desert. Literally nothing to burn.

They're from the mines.

[–]CaptainBeBop 5 points6 points  (1 child)

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BOOM!

http://m.theatlanticcities.com/technology/2012/12/australias-city-light-pollution-dwarfed-its-blazing-wildfires/4236/

There's no way the mines are as big as the cities. Also, most of them shut down at night and would not be lit up as much a city the size of Sydney. I've flown over them many times.

[–]Helmet_Juice 4 points5 points  (0 children)

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Fair play, I stand corrected (and feel retarded)

In fairness to myself though, from the link:

Fires and other lights that were detected on one day were integrated into the composite, multi-day picture despite being temporary phenomena.

kind of threw me a bit..

But yes, I'm dumb.