Re: OT: Outside Air Quality

[Guest guest]

You are talking about what is now called " light pollution "

A few years ago NASA published a composite image of the entire world's night

lights as seen from space.

The entire eastern seaboard, LA area and many other metropolitan areas in

the world glow from space like

Christmas tree lights. When you go out at night, there is always a glow in

the sky obscuring the stars

and in all probability, also effecting the circadian rhythms of plants and

animals somewhat.

(Although I doubt if it is as much of an impact on health as a lot of other

issues in urban areas.)

In big swaths of the Earth, though, the night sky is dark. Astronauts on the

ISS and space shuttles, etc. can typically

see the glow of camp fires from nomadic tribespeople hundreds of miles below

them from space as they fly overhead..

its that dark.

Places in the devloped and fast developing world like the US, Europe, Japan,

Australia, South Africa, the Gulf states, China, India, etc. keep getting

brighter and brighter.. Even in their more rural areas you can trace things

like highways, rivers, railroad lines, etc. from space because along them is

usually lots of electrical light..

Other places, like North Korea, used to have light but are darker now

because of political issues, changes in their standard of living

or the increased cost of energy.

On 6/19/07, barb1283 <barb1283@...> wrote:

>

> I just realized that I have not seen any stars at night where I live.

> When I was growing up the sky was full of stars and gradually they

> have disappeared without me taking note until recently. Am I alone in

> this? I know Cinci is a city on list of amoung the worse for air

> quality, so perhaps many other places the stars are " still out " .

> Wondering what other people's observations are.

> I came to think about it when I remembered back to a trip with my then-

> husband to Sequoia National Park and thing I noticed that the sky was

> soooo full of stars, it looked like you couldn't have fit another one

> up there. I often think about how beautiful that was, then realized

> not only is sky not full of stars here but never see any. Looked the

> other night and saw a couple.

> Reminds me that I have to get out of here.

>

> _

>

[Guest guest]

I found it.. Check it out:

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap001127.html

[image]

Earth at Night

Credit: C. Mayhew & R. Simmon (NASA/GSFC), NOAA/ NGDC, DMSP Digital Archive

Explanation: This is what the Earth looks like at night. Can you find

your favorite country or city? Surprisingly, city lights make this

task quite possible. Human-made lights highlight particularly

developed or populated areas of the Earth's surface, including the

seaboards of Europe, the eastern United States, and Japan. Many large

cities are located near rivers or oceans so that they can exchange

goods cheaply by boat. Particularly dark areas include the central

parts of South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia. The above image

is actually a composite of hundreds of pictures made by the orbiting

DMSP satellites.

(Editor's note: Contrary to some recent press reports, this site does

not have a rotating screensaver version of the above image. Also,

unfortunately, we do not sell prints. However, a high-resolution

digital version of the image is available (click here

http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view_rec.php?vev1id=5826

) and an Earth at Night poster similar to this image can be ordered

(click here http://www.astrosociety.org/online-store/scstore/ ) from

other web sites.

[Guest guest]

Haley said this also. However I don't see any usual lighting that

wasn't here years ago where I live and I used to see stars. I

believe that it is smog hanging over the air and lights from

surrounding area 'bouncing' off of that, and diffusing the light

over a larger area, like putting a shade on a light bulb diffuses

the light or using a white coated bulb instead of a clear bulb. I

do believe in Sequoia national park, if you put lots and lots of

lights but no people or cars polluting, you'd still see those stars

because there are so many and so bright. I don't buy it, even if

NASA says it. In fact I don't believe most of what scientist say

who are getting paid by tax dollars or big corporations. They have

just lost all credibility with me. zI think some of them believe

themselves, some know they are lieing. The percentage of liars is

so large, I assume they are all lying until proven otherwise. The

space program uses an awful lot of fuel.

--- In , LiveSimply <quackadillian@...>

wrote:

>

> You are talking about what is now called " light pollution "

> A few years ago NASA published a composite image of the entire

world's night

> lights as seen from space.