Owl's Eye View
Due to copyright laws, I cannot post the photo on this website. If you would like to see the photo, find it at this link:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/NPP/news/earth-at-night.html
A black expanse full of shining lights, some clustered together like spiral galaxies, others straying away from the pack into dark patches as intense as black holes. This is not a photo of outer space, but of Earth at night as seen from a NASA satellite. The photo, taken with a year-long exposure that captures the luminosity coming from places all across the world’s continents, shows how humanity’s love of light has transformed the dark of our planet into a speckled, interconnected world. While the photo itself was taken by scientists for research purposes, it proves a piece of educational art, using contrast and clarity to give a portrait of human development.
The photo uses light and contrast to provide an unorthodox glimpse at the world. When viewing the photo, the eye immediately jumps to the most lighted places on the map. A viewer might consider the United States or Europe, both riddled with the lights of cities and highways. Or the eye might jump straight to the lightning bolt of the Nile striking the tip of Africa. The photo inspires curiosity, immediately challenging the viewer to decide which area shines brightest and, in doing so, ponder the reason why some areas are lighter than others.
Of course, once the lighted places are all acknowledged, the viewer might consider the darker spots: the northernmost parts of Russia and Canada, the deep jungles of South America, or even the indigo oceans themselves, darkest against the bright edges of the densely-populated coasts. The Mediterranean Sea sits square in the top center of the photo, ringed by the unbroken lights on its banks. It is this contrast that makes the body of water seem all the darker, like a sapphire set in diamonds. The various patches of dark and densely packed
light draw viewers’ gazes across continents, from North America, to Europe, to Asia, making them take note of the entire world in a way they might not have in a daytime photo, where all the land masses look fairly homogenous. At night, the vast difference between countries is as plain as the glow from a light bulb.
Beyond the use of light and contrast, the satellite image is more utilitarian than unexpected. Instead of using artistic framing or angles to pique the viewer’s curiosity, the photo shows a practical, flattened view of the world as it would appear on the most classroom-friendly geography map. All landmasses are clearly visible like cutouts of blue construction paper. The lights themselves hint at the iconic
shapes of many familiar countries, constellations made of highways, capitals, and political borders. India is as crammed with light as it is with people. Japan is a gleaming parenthesis, and the boundary between North and South Korea is as stark as the line between moon and night sky, with the north experiencing a blackout. Other borders are more subtle. Europe appears as one pulsing mass of activity, and the glowing Eastern United States fades into the dim deserts of the West.
The photo uses the standard orientation of world maps, with Africa in the center and the ice-caped poles forming a jagged border for the picture. This orientation is practical, if not enlightening. The darker, colder regions of Northern Russia and Canada fade almost out of memory until they join the reflective ice of the poles. From this angle, the light seems to be concentrated just north of the equator, a broken banner of light stretching from the United States, across to Europe, eventually reaching to Eastern China and Japan, while much of the land below lies in darkness. This traditional framing of the world and its continents allows the viewer to compare the night image to their previous knowledge and assumptions about the map. While at once challenging their preconceived notions about geography, it allows them to fill in the borders and labels from memory, seeing the once familiar countries in a new light (or, in this case, darkness).
While the photo is scientific in nature, with its standard orientation and flattened image, no viewer can ignore the social and political implications of such a starkly contrasting portrait of the world. To some, scientists and educators, it might simply provide an engaging data point for research or teaching. It is certainly an interesting photo, giving us a view of our own world that would be impossible without the technology of a powerful satellite. For researchers, it provides a quantifiable chart of light levels at this point in history, as well as the distribution of electricity, and will prove useful to the historians of the future.
For others, though, it is a map of the politics of the day. Some might see in it an alarming picture of over-industrialization. The photo shows a world at once darker and lighter than one may have expected. Lighter, in contrast to how it must have looked two hundred years ago, and lighter, in how it shows how much darkness is still left unconquered. No doubt many politicians could use this as an example of the uneven distribution of wealth and technology. Some areas are lit so brightly they stand out even from thousands of miles away, while just across a border, there is blackness. Still others might view the dark places as a challenge, uncharted territory that might someday soon bear the signature of human presence in the form of light.
Whatever conclusions viewers draw from this image, the photo provides a global snapshot of human development. In cartoons, a light bulb over the head indicates a new idea, an innovation, and that is certainly the case with this photo. Humans have managed to reach every corner of the globe, from the coasts of the New World to the islands dotting the ocean around Indonesia. At the same time, many places have yet to turn on the lights of modernity. Only time will tell whether a follow-up photo a hundred years from now will show a lighter or darker world. One more advanced, or one burned by its own creativity. Let’s hope that the societies that invented such a bright world can continue to use technology to make it a good one.
Work Cited
Cole, Steve, et. al. "NASA-NOAA Satellite Reveals New Views of Earth at Night." NASA Earth Observatory/NOAA NGDC. NASA.gov. Photo.