Despite the blackouts, the DR manages to glow at night!

NALs

Economist by Profession
Jan 20, 2003
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Here is an interesting map of the light pollution in Central America and the Caribbean. Some of the most interesting findings is how bright Puerto Rico is at night, the stark dichotomy between the Dominican Republic and Haiti, the extreme brightness of the Mexican oil fields in the Bay of Campeche (Gulf of Mexico near the Yucatan peninsula).

Also, Florida looks amazing and in the Lesser Antilles, apparently most of the population concentrates on the western shore of each island, possibly due to the hurricanes that tend to arrive from the east. This is quite notorious on the island of Trinidad, off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. Through out the Caribbean, the beaches on the Caribbean side tend to be calmer and nicer than the one's facing the Atlantic, so maybe tourism development has something to do with that too.

Light pollution in the Dominican Republic tends to show quite well the population distribution, most of which concentrates in Greater Santo Domingo plus San Crist?bal province (some 4 million people) and the Cibao Valley (roughly 3.5 million); in other words, almost 80% of the population.

earthatnight.jpg
This image, among others, was provided by NASA.
 

mido

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May 18, 2002
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This picture must have been taken from the same position every night for at least a week to get that much "glow" to the DR...
 

NALs

Economist by Profession
Jan 20, 2003
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This is another interesting photo taken from the Space Station at a much closer distance. Santo Domingo and the eastern region, Puerto Rico, the Lesser Antilles, and even Caracas in Venezuela is clearly visible.

6279669845_bf946225ef_b.jpg
 
Jun 18, 2007
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www.rentalmetrocountry.com
This picture must have been taken from the same position every night for at least a week to get that much "glow" to the DR...


The several times I flew in from the north at night I did not see any lights till we were very close to Santo Domingo.
Maybe Pichardo got a call from NASA that they were going to take that picture and then he called Leonel to make sure to turn on the lights in the country. ;)
 

Castle

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Sep 1, 2012
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Well, I guess they do need to keep the lens open long enough in order to get street/house/cars lights from such a distance.
 

NALs

Economist by Profession
Jan 20, 2003
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This map shows the population distribution and densities, and closely correlates with the light pollution map on my first post. Anything in various shades of orange or red shows significant concentration of population, yellows are low density areas and gray are practically depopulated.

8181-6B7117EB710A3C2CC125738A00359FF8-unosat_afc_dom071101.png
 

Hillbilly

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Jan 1, 2002
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This is another interesting photo taken from the Space Station at a much closer distance. Santo Domingo and the eastern region, Puerto Rico, the Lesser Antilles, and even Caracas in Venezuela is clearly visible.

6279669845_bf946225ef_b.jpg

Yeah, all you have to do is keep the Capital happy and you win elections...

Pieces of crap government!!! So sue me! I have been telling people for years these guys are ripoff artists...but an ignorant electorate gets the government they deserve.


HB