5/3/2005: Korea at night

[glatt]

Here's an image of North Korea at night that does not appear fake to me (top one.) It shows a few city lights, it shows a brightly lit DMZ, it shows lights in surrounding countries that appear to be dark in today's IOD above. This is was I expected North Korea to look like.

OK, I'll stop ranting and raving now.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by glatt

Here's an image of North Korea at night that does not appear fake to me (top one.) It shows a few city lights, it shows a brightly lit DMZ, it shows lights in surrounding countries that appear to be dark in today's IOD above. This is was I expected North Korea to look like.

OK, I'll stop ranting and raving now.

The bottom one in that link is the same image UT posted. In the center between the two is a comparison showing the NK capitol lit up in '96 but not in '01.
If you're right and it is a fake, who's faking it and why?

[tw]

Originally Posted by Karenv

"IOW I don't understand your point."

The difference between the original picture submitted by UT and the pics with some light could be due to time of day and just having dim lighting. Why assume that it is doctored when there are simpler explanations?

So why are lights in the Korea Straits off in the water adjacent to the island of Tsushima? Why does the ocean have more lights than the adjacent island of Tsushima? Why are there lights as bright as in Seoul located at 36 degrees N, 130 degrees East in the East Sea (Sea of Japan) off the city of Pohang? No land mass (island) exists there. Why are there bright lights in the Yellow Sea off the city of Gimpo and Incheon (west of Seoul)? How does time of day cause bright lights to appear where only ocean should exist? I don't understand your point. What does time of day have to do with lights where no human civilization should exist?

Those lights don't appear in a picture provided by xoxoxoBruce and in a new photo provided by UT. So what created lights where no land masses exist? Time of day?

[russotto]

The lights in the water are boats.

[glatt]

Here's another image and an explanation of the lights in the water.

Take a look at Japan and South Korea, brightly lit up. Contrast the latter to North Korea, the border between the two being clearly demarked where the light stops at the 38th parallel. Do you see the light blue in the waters surrounding Japan and South Korea? This represents large floodlights employed by the fishing fleet at night, to draw squid and other sea creatures to the surface where they can easily be caught. This is the sign of fisheries on the brink of collapse. Similar lights can be seen off the coast of China and in a few other spots in the other images.

[tw]

Originally Posted by glatt

Here's another image and an explanation of the lights in the water.

The fishing fleets create lights greater than or equal to the light output in cities of millions? Look at North Korea where 5 megawatts is a significant electricity. Notice the little amount of light. Look at the South Korean cities where the electric consumption is thousands of megawatts.

What ships are lightning the ocean even with 5 megawatts? If the lit ocean areas were not so large (the size of P'yongyang in N Korea), then I might appreciate that explanation. But the numbers necessary to light up such large areas just cannot be accounted for by a fishing fleet. Its just too much electricity and in multiple ocean areas that are too large. One fishing fleet lights an ocean area the size of Seoul and its suburbs? If the generators on those boats are that large, then where do they store the day's catch?

Remember, I am questioning the validity of the first photo posted by UT. Those other photos don't show all those lights offshore. And those other photos show he islands in the Korea straights properly illuminated only on land- not in the Straits.

[glatt]

I'm not a fisherman, so I don't know.

Perhaps the light in these images is a measure of light and not electricity. Perhaps much of the light from these fishing boats is being reflected up into the sky, and that isn't happening as much on the land, where dark colored pavement, dirt and vegetation absorbs much of the light from street lights.

When you shine a light from a high angle into the water, some penetrates the water, and some bounces off the surface like a mirror. Perhaps these fishing boats are, in effect, aiming their lights down into the ocean at the same time they are aiming them up into the lenses of the cameras in the satellites.