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NASA / NOAA
This picture of Earth at night is based on 1994-1995 satellite data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Operational Linescan System, which maps the location of permanent lights on the planet. The borders of North Korea are outlined in white, with Japan off to the right, China to the left and South Korea below.
The death of North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Il, serves as a reminder that the hard-line communist country has long been in the dark — literally. A white border highlights the dark spot known as North Korea in this visualization of our planet's city lights.
This iconic "Earth at Night" picture is based on data gathered by military satellites in 1994-1995, just after Kim inherited power from his late father, Kim Il Sung. The darkness shows how much North Korea has lagged behind its neighbors — South Korea, China, Russia and Japan — in electrification and industrial development. Updates of the data sets show that there's been no change in North Korea's city-light situation between 1992 and 2009. Check out NOAA's "Science on a Sphere" webpage for more about the "Earth at Night" satellite data project.
A different kind of satellite project shows where North Korea has made progress during the dark age of Kim Jong Il: For years, the Institute for Science and International Security has been using satellite imagery to document the state of North Korea's nuclear program. Pictures acquired from orbit over the past couple of years show new construction at the country's Yongbyon nuclear center.
Here's a recent picture of the Yongbyon site from DigitalGlobe, a commercial satellite imaging venture. ISIS says the blue roofs on a gas centrifuge plant and an adjoining building appear to be part of increased construction activity:
DigitalGlobe
This high-resolution satellite image from DigitalGlobe, acquired on Nov. 4, 2010, shows new construction at North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear site. The building with a deep blue roof is thought to be a gas centrifuge plant.
"Whatever the purpose, these activities show that more is going on at Yongbyon than commonly believed," ISIS analyst Paul Brannan wrote in his latest report. The future of North Korea's nuclear program will be a top concern for the United States and its allies as they assess Pyongyang's leadership transition — and satellites will provide the key data for that assessment.
These satellite views of North Korea serve as today's offering from the Cosmic Log Space Advent Calendar, which presents views of Earth from space every day from now until Christmas. Catch up on these previous entries from the calendar:
- The full Cosmic Log Space Advent Calendar
- Dec. 1: An ornament in outer space
- Dec. 2: The masses in Mecca
- Dec. 3: Santa's shrinking domain
- Dec. 4: The monster of Madagascar
- Dec. 5: Antarctica stripped naked
- Dec. 6: Streaking for home
- Dec. 7: Pearl Harbor from above, 1941-2011
- Dec. 8: The rise and fall of the Dead Sea
- Dec. 9: How an eclipse dims Earth
- Dec. 10: Psychedelic storm
- Dec. 11: Beauty of the Inland Sea
- Dec. 12: Drone-spotting stirs up debate
- Dec. 13: Light up your St. Lucy's Day
- Dec. 14: Satellite spots Chinese aircraft carrier
- Dec. 15: Hooray for Hollywood
- Dec. 16: Olympics under construction
- Dec. 17: Mystery in the Gobi Desert
- Dec. 18: Glow over Miami
- Hubble calendar, from The Atlantic's In Focus
- 2011 Zooniverse Advent calendar
Tip o' the Log to Ezra Klein's Wonkblog at The Washington Post and Afrikent.
Correction for 11 p.m. ET: I mistakenly referred to "Science on a Sphere" as being provided by NASA, when it's actually provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Sorry about that! Must have been because the first time I saw the "Science on a Sphere" display was at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.
Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
Leave a Comment:
Countries to wipe off the map - in no particular order:
Iran
China
Japan
North Korea
Afghanistan
Lebanon
Pakistan
Congo
Iraq
Sudan
Somalia
mt-512899
Wow what a narrow and dangers view you have, I hope you never gain real power to do the things that you describe in your comment. I have many good friends from some of the countries you want to wipe off the map, and they are good decent people.
God help us if we ever stoop so low to wipe any country or a people off the map.
Have a good day, Tom And Lyn
So who'll be making all the electronics and chips for you?
Sorry To All You Guys For My Bad Spelling, My eyes are not that good anymore. But I hope I made my point clear in my comment I made above.
have a good day, Tom And Lyn
mt-
I hope the screen name you chose is supposed to be said allowed as "empty".
Your comment is as inflammatory as it gets. I don't have any allegiances to the countries which you have listed here but I am not willing to say we need to "wipe off the map" those nations. First of all, each of those nations has good, honest, real people on the ground that you are willing to just wipe of the face of the Earth. I don't care if you have a reason for what you've said here, even if it's a joke, It's inflammatory and you should be ashamed to have ideas like that.
I don't understand why people continue to think these matters are so easy that we can just wipe a country off the face of the planet. Yes, we could nuke the regions that don't live or act like us, but what would that make us? That would make us tyrannical murderous bastards.
The line of thinking that you have put forth, here on a scientific forum of all places, is deplorable.
Thanks Mob
For The Back up Comment, I could not have said it better myself.
Have a good day, Tom And Lyn
Thank you Tom, for your comments and your thanks. You have a good day too. And happy holidays to all.
And yet you're ok with Yemen?
Geez, so what is your criteria for a country not deserving to exist? Does the US meet that criteria?
They may not be lit now, but one wrong move against America, could cause the whole country to glow. If you catch my drift.
While not advocating any of that, I can at least understand how someone might have some visceral issues with many of those places...
But I can't even imagine what your problem with Japan could be. (A place we've already dropped high explosives, firebombs and nukes on, BTW...and that nature just smacked pretty hard in March)
Pearl Harbor? I doubt you're old enough, and we got even. Get over it.
I mean, do you hate sushi or anime, or something...?
Ah! The joys of communism. Freezing in the dark while the dictator dines on duck and watches movies.
To be fair, if you wipe out Lebanon, Israel must go as well - two sides of the same coin there my friend. Afghanistan and Pakistan beget India as well. Try seeing outside of your narrow Ameri-centric viewpoint (I'm American, by the way). Try to remember that your entire perspective on these countries is HIGHLY tainted by media 'spin'. The vast majority of folks from those other countries are quite wonderful people - albeit with some cultural differences that may seem 'strange' to an outsider. Basically, just be a damn human...man.
Japan? MT isn't Godzilla in disguise is he?
you sound like a nazi. nazis lost.....
mt im suprised you can use a keyboard. with your backwards thinking .one would soppose your knuckels drag
You sound like an Iran supporter, OWS Supporter and an Obama Supporter. You need to be wiped out of existence ASAP
@ Carl Hubert - And you sound like an idiot.
As for this article - a big reminder that communism does not work. A shame that the people of North Korea continue to allow themselves to be ruled in such a manner. Don't worry Conservatives, I am not advocating a war against north korea. I'll save that for one of your republicans.
The only good thing about N.K. is its not emitting.
Before I can assess whether I support MT or disagree, I would need to have some clarifications of his comments:
1. When you say "countries" to wipe away, did you mean a) the governments only b) all the people c) the actual landmass d) the mental construct of/or graphical representation of said "country" or e) all of the above?
2. When you say to wipe them "off the map", were you referring to a Rand McNally publication? Google Maps? I don't believe there is only one map, so I am confused. You should have said "off a map" or "off all maps." There really isn't such a thing as THE map.
3. When you say "wipe", does that refer to a) killing? (i.e. nuclear or conventional weapons) b) lightly scented moist towelettes?
4. Is this a complete list? Why not include Syria? Why not include the U.S? What was your criteria? What if the borders of North and South Korea were changed, to create East/West Korea instead? Would that be ok?
The PC intellectual spew starts.....anything is OK, as long as it happens elsewhere.
There were a lot of nice Germans during WWII also, but they were being controlled by bad people. They got killled too, but that is the cost of doing nothing against a tyrant. There were a lot of dead Japanese that were civilians too, but controlled by a fanatic military. They HAD to go along or get killled by their rulers.
Japan I don't get . We will be in a shooting war with China within 10 years.
Most of the others are sandpits or swamps - not a great loss.
More proof that anger is a mental illness. What is the first thing the sick puppies on Hoarders do - they get angry. Anger is a choice - it also takes more energy to stay angry than be happy.
I think I know where your country is. Start with S.
Getting out my scissors. Removing those countries from my map now. My globe is going to be a problem. Black marker? Dude, most people don't know where those countries are.
Add Mexico and Nicaragua. Cuba too. Put back China and Japan. Somebody has to be able to do science and math.
Japan? Why Japan? (not that I agree with the others, but Japan?)
"Strange thing is they make such bloody good cameras." I like Japanese animation too!
Trying to find any logic behind that comment would be folly. There are folks in each of those countries that do not deserve what MT- has described.
Need to wipe mt-512899 off the map
There's no need to try to find any logic behind his comment, mob.
He's not the sharpest tool in the shed. In the matter of fact, he's asking directions to that shed.
I thought very hard about posting this video I am about to show all of you here, but I have to give all of you a complete understanding of who I am, and how I view Humanity, and the world in witch we live. I have been all over the world and have seen some good things and bad things, and what I have seen has changed my life forever, and I see the world in way that most would not understand unless they travel outside our borders.
I made this video about 8 months ago, it will make you cry and smile all at the same time, but it is the world as I see it through my eyes and experience.
Also at the end of the video I have a good quote from Carl Sagan.
Have a good day, Tom And Lyn
Link to the video.
Humanity http://youtu.be/wwD2C9oe__Y
All Things Must Pass....G.H.
Going Where The Wind Don't Blow So Strange....J.G.
People to wipe off the map. MT.
Nope. MT should be taken to each of those countries to meet the people he would so easily have done away with. MT should live a long and full life. Perhaps that is the only way for him (assuming he's a him) to see the importance of each of us. There are evil people in this world, and sometimes there is no other way to deal with those people, but to even suggest obliteration of entire regions (as mt-512899 did) is just insane.
eMpTy
He's just a troll describing the inside of his head.
mt is just trying to still up crap. The point is N. Korea is spending all of its resources on its Military and Nuclear Weapons and letting its population starve. That does not bode well for their neighbors or us in the future! These weapons are not for defensive purposes despite what they say!
I'm all for conserving energy, but those N. Koreans have taken it to a new level!
Only the military is well fed in that country!
MT is that you Dick or maybe it's Don or it could be George.
Left is Fuzzy, the North Korean leadership has brainwashed their people to the point of lunacy. These people supposedly starve, forgo electricity, and give up ubiquitous comforts in the name of a paranoid defense of their tiny country and they still call Kim Jong Il the "Great Leader". They'll probably do the same for their next "Great Leader". Poor Dumb B------s.
Brainwashed, yes. Dumb, no. They call Kim Jong Il the "Great Leader", but we have to remember that there is absolutely no freedom of speech or press there, and the majority of the people are forbidden to leave the country, under threat of torture and death.
As a result, North Korea's general population has no accurate knowledge of the outside world. They have been forcibly indoctrinated since infancy with the idea that Kim Jong Ill was the equivalent of a god, and have never had any opportunity to hear any information whatsoever that would suggest otherwise.
Any criticism of the "Great Leader" is also a major crime. Even if some North Koreans believed that Kim Jong Il didn't deserve the worship that he demanded, there was no way they would admit to it, unless they wanted to die in a prison camp.
seb22;
This is the perfect example of leftest policies run a muck. This is the model for all other leftist dictators like Hugo Chavez. They tell their people, "We will give you all you need, we will protect you, we know better how to run your life". What they don't say is, We will enslave you, kill you, deprive you of all you have and can produce. When men like these joke about being viewed to the right of our President, it's telling. Be careful how much hero worship you bestow on any politician, they routinely disappoint or enslave.
No, not so...the N. Korean gov't is Fascist, and Fascism is an extreme right-wing thing gone a muck! As I read here, there are many structural formation comments that need recalibrating!
An example: How in the world can president Obama be a capitalist and a socialist at the same time? Wasn't he the one who approved the bailout for the banks and Wall street? A real socialist would've funneled the bailout money to the population of working-class people (a much better tactic than the aforementioned)
Imagine, if each of us common folks were cut a check of $200k, and having those dollars taxed, with the government writing off the debt, (billions disappeared anyway) the economy would be high-flying by now! To be legit with our criticisms, we can't have it both ways with respect to such matters!
Before people go off saying things like "Nuke 'em", or "Wipe 'em off the earth.", they should stand on the tarmac at Dover and watch coffins come off the planes. They should go to Landstuhl or Walter Reed and visit with service members with no arms, legs, or even faces. These are the people you ask to do your dirty work when you want nations obliterated.
There's got to be better ways to remove a dictator and a handful of his loyal thugs than punish their poor peasants who are already being punished. We just haven't seemed to find them yet.
Rah-
Under fascism there is the pretense of "private ownership"; the primary difference (in practice) between Communism and Fascism, so NK is Communist, not Fascist, as there is almost no private ownership, real or illusory.
Dark Skies loves North Korea.
Now just try to take your telescope there. If they let you in at all, be prepared to prove you're not a spy...
Scientist have also discovered that there are species of animals surviving in the De-militarized Zone between the two Koreas that are not found anywhere else in the world. With no human interaction for half a century, nature has taken a different course in the plant's and animal's world.
That doesn't make me respect the situation any, it's just an observation.
Those North Koreans appear to be without power. Too bad.
Perhaps they could use their nuclear knowledge to make some electricity, huh?
No Ko ... the real land of Mordor!
Wow MT, not winning any popularity contests in here.
Is this a real picture from space? What does it mean that it is made up of data collected by the military?
As the article stated, The lit areas are areas of 'permanent' light. So basically it means that they aggregate thousands of pictures of a period of time, and only show the areas that were lit up in every one.
No power, guess they really needed those nuclear reactors to generate some electricity.
On the one hand it's very sad to think how the North Korean people have been denied modernization while their government pursues oppression and weaponry. On the other hand, perhaps they see more stars than the rest of us. We could stand to tone down the light pollution.
Maybe they didn't pay their electric bill.
Light Pollution is Not a good Thing...So to tout them in the Dark Ages may not be fair. Where I live, even 15 years ago we could see the stars, the Milky Way, the Meteor Showers, almost the angels wisping through the night skies!! I was a young woman then. Now we see nothing but reflective glare. So if a dark night is a sign of a lack of progress, then I would say, maybe, just maybe we have taken progress a little too far.
However, Progress does NOT include Nuclear ambitions.
If the darkness of the North Korea represented elegant restraint on the part of their population, I'd say, good job; nobody is the better off for seeing another neon sign.
But sadly, it is much, much more likely that this darkness does not represent restraint, but abject poverty, and that is not a good thing.
According to those criteria, North Korea has made more progress than the United "Nuclear ambition" States. And do you think we would allow some foreigners to tell us what to research?
That satellite photo is worth 1000 words.
The southern part of the Korean peninsula, ablaze with light. North of the 38th parallel, nothing.
Imagine if the U.S. had not spearheaded U.N. intervention in 1950. That would be the entire peninsula. No lights, little food or fuel, and a pampered, self-aggrandizing leader and his inner clique.
Kim Jung Il, now Kin Jung Dead.
Rest In Peace Kim, if your country can find a manure pile suitable for your burial.
And if we would have pushed every time they attacked past the 38th we should have pushed them back 2 miles each and every time this might not have been an issue from the get go...
The war in Korea was very interesting. Both North Korean forces and South Korean forces were almost pushed off of the peninsula at one point in time. Only for the war to end in a virtual draw. (technically, we are still at war with them, never having signed a peace treaty)
How do you know what it's like to live in Korea? So just because a leader inherits power he automatically deserves to die? There have been various leaders in Korea since the Korean war each inheriting power, and of course they will have a negative media attention in the U.S. Do you not realise that the Korean war never ended? We are still at war with Korea, so why would Korea be an allie to a country that has been at war with them for over 50 years? The U.S. is just as responsible as the North Korean leadership for how the country has been cut off from the rest of the world, they are repeatedly sanctioning the country, and cutting humanitarian aid. The purpose of the war was to stop the spread of communism in the world due to the cold war against the Soviet Union, since the Soviet state no longer exists, why isn't a peace treaty to end this war established when the ultimate threat no longer exists?
I know, their people just like looking at the stars, so they all leave their lights off at night,,, even in the cities.
First of all, that isn't true communism.
Secondly, we normally don't give out aid to countries that don't particularly like us.
No, it is a corrupt, totalitarian state. But when has there ever been a true, communist state?
Communism was the idealistic pipe dream of well-meaning intellectuals like Marx and Engels. It is not something which has, or ever will, exist in the real world.
IvnOh - There are insufficient hours between now and the dawn to address all the falsehoods in your post. So, I'll just once again redirect you to the satellite photo featured in this story. By comparison, even Siberia looks comparatively well lit and inhabited
On another day we can discuss the rampant starvation, Kim Jung Il's relentless pursuit of nuclear weapons, and the fact that the US has not attacked North Korea since the Armistice was signed back in the 1950s.
Logic. They no longer teach in schools, I guess. Why not?
"Communism was the idealistic pipe dream of well-meaning intellectuals like Marx and Engels. It is not something which has, or ever will, exist in the real world."
But what they failed to take into account is that their theory would never work because human greed would always prevent it from doing so.
going to be interesting what direction this kid takes the country.
He's almost 30. I'm sure he's at least as capable as the fool he is replacing.
ATTACK!!!
If you take a good look at the handle MT. In certain areas it means Missile Technician. If this is in fact the case then this individual needs to have his career changed and put through an all inclusive psychiatric evaluation to see why he wants to start Armageddon. One warped individual as I see it. Just saying.
It just goes to show how Nut's these people are. Africa light's up at night more than North Korea. That country need's to be invaded for sure. It should have been done a long time ago. Truman should have let McArthur finish the job and we wouldn't have a North Korea problem today.
You first off the landing craft or parachuting into their country Einstein. These NK soldiers are exponentially more numerous, motivated, and way better equipped than Iraq's.
Actually North Korea has only late 1960s to early 1970s military technology, our military technology would destroy there warplanes and navy probably on the first day of an new war with them, as it is now not an even match anymore, remember Iraq and Kuwait. And remember North Korea is almost as barren as Iraq (I.E. hardly no place to hide). And this time around I really don't believe that China would help them either. If we had an government with real guts and not play politics with our military we would take out there government and military now, because in today's (or ever) world there is no room for communism.
Yup, you armchair military experts are always right. The Iraq war will be a cakewalk and the people will welcome us with rejoicing. Wrong. McArthur told the President that the Chinese would never directly aid the NK. Wrong. Viet-nam--a "stone age" country that defeated the French and then the US. You can look at our overwhelming technological advantage or you can look at the facts. Right-wing militaristic lies have cost our nation its treasure and its blood.
teehee
Hey, not to worry. When they launch their nuclear weapons and they come right back down on themselves, that'll light that place right up.
I'm surprised Japan doesn't just glow solid white like the sun. It's actually pretty close though. Poor N. Korea.
somebody needs to squash this cockroach of a country and soon. Actually should have been done already!
I wonder how long they will leave their lights off mourning the loss of their beloved leader? They never quit mouring the last one either.
N. Korea, eh, no biggy, I don't trust Canada though. Way too quiet up there.
They are planning something big, I can feel it
Who? The Canadians you mentioned in your prior post?
Yes. The Canadians. Don't be fooled. They are all "aye, we are just Canadians aye" then bam!!! Pow!!! you get 2 darts to the neck!!
i hear they have meetings in Florida
These people were literally kept in the dark and starved so that a tyrant could retain his hold on power. Surely the time is coming in this world in the not too distant future when these goons will no longer be able to commit such crimes against humanity.