This came to me in the mail today.. with attached text..
Click here:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0011/earthlights_dmsp_big.jpg

The image is a panoramic view of the world from the new space station. It is a night photo with the lights clearly indicating the populated areas. You can scroll East-West and North-South. Note that Canada's population is almost exclusively along the U.S. border. Moving east to Europe, there is a high population concentration along the Mediterranean Coast. It's easy to spot London, Paris, Stockholm and Vienna. Check out the development of Israel compared to the rest of the Arab countries.

Note the Nile River and the rest of the "Dark Continent". After the Nile, the lights don't come on again until Johannesburg. Look at the Australian Outback and the Trans-Siberian Rail Route. Moving east, the most striking observation is the difference between North and South Korea. Note the density of Japan.

What a piece of photography. It is an absolutely awesome picture of the Earth taken from the Boeing built Space Station last November on a perfect night with no obscuring atmospheric conditions.

What a great picture! What I find most interesting is how clearly you can see the NH and SH icecaps. Their high albedo makes them visible, even during the night. I guess they reflect light from the moon. Wow!

finally, a photo from space proving the earth is flat!!

-joe (somewhere the sun is shining?) bfstplk

WOW! How very succinct and dramatic. Thanks, Of.

Gobsmacked and godsmacked I am [in awe-e]

Interesting. I was hoping that it would show relatively intensities, but it doesn't. When I fly into a new country it always seems to be at night. I've divided the world's countries up into "high wattage" and "low wattage" countries. India and Pakistan are low wattage countries, for instance - the lights are dimmer. The US, Canada, UK, Singapore, Zild and Oz are high wattage. Stupid, I know, but ... !

Fascinating.

There is a bright forward leaning "S" towards the top of the UK. Working from the bottom are the big conurbations (west to east) of Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds working up the coast through the North East, past Newcastle and on to Edinburgh and Glasgow, the last part of the "S" goes up to Aberdeen (I think) before fading out into the North of Scotland. It makes me realise why the Scottish Highlands are such a lovely holiday destination - you really can see the sky from there.

I'm surprised at the size of the "glob" which is St. John's/Mount Pearl/Paradise (population of less than 200,000, total). You can see it on the picture on the easternmost part of Newfoundland (the Avalon peninsula). Instead of seeing just a circular dot for St. John's, which is what I expected, you can see the whole elongated shape of the three contiguous cities, and the surrounding towns along Conception Bay.

Can you see me waving? Towards the bottom left hand side of the world's biggest island. That's me right there!

Excellent oftroy!!

stales

Stales!!! you coulda had a shave, and for god's sake man , stand up straight!!!! :-)

the Duncster

Helen, that's a great picture - many thanks indeed!

Helen, 'twas not just an excellent picture, 'twas an excellent site.

On that site, http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ will give you the "Astronomy Picture of the Day", with a brief explanation. The pictures are from all over the cosmos and, browsing through the archives, some are strikingly beautiful.

For similar night-views of the earth, including the site's write-up:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap001127.html: entire earth on reduced scale; less detail but no scrolling needed
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010827.html: similar, but highlighting intensities
Asia at night: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990728.html
Europe: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990516.html
United States: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000708.html
I saw one of Australia, but cannot re-find it.

Wow, Helen. That's beautiful.

It looks like the continents got all dressed up in their best sequined ballgowns and diamond jewelry and are ready for the big dance.

ready for the big dance.

Which they sort of are, on million-year kinds of time scales.

The day view is an interesting companion piece to Helen's lovely night view. It enlarges if you click on the picture, and once it's enlarged the detail in some areas, particularly Australia, is fascinating.

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020305.html

Breathtaking, Helen! Now I know how inaccurate my mental picture of the world's population centers, and sprawl, has been in many places. I'm also astonished to see as much open space Upunder! I knew the Outback encompassed a large part of the Australian continent, but I never realized the population was as condensed along the coast as it is. Wonderfully enlightening! Thanks!