Interesting though.

Logic tells me they are simply image defects, however, they are all over cloud cover for starters (as Worldwatcher said).

Also, they all seem to be near fairly large population centres.

I just checked and found large groups near Beijing, Moscow, London and New York. Sounds like a B-grade sci-fi movie plot.

It's not just around the large cities, that's cause it's the only place you looked. I also noticed this photo error in clouds over Antarctica.

very interesting, are they here for the superbowl? Or to continue the stall on the analog tv switch over?

So many off the coast of california, between hawaii and the ca. coast.

Could this have to do with Redoubt about to go?

Originally posted by antar
very interesting, are they here for the superbowl? Or to continue the stall on the analog tv switch over?

So many off the coast of california, between hawaii and the ca. coast.

Could this have to do with Redoubt about to go?

You'd better put superbowl apart from your mind. This is serious. It's not my intent to scare or joke, but to inform and research the truth together.

Originally posted by SeeingBlue
It's not just around the large cities, that's cause it's the only place you looked. I also noticed this photo error in clouds over Antarctica.

YES! Mainly in large unpopulated areas. The poles, Siberia, Kazakisthan, China, Argentina, Mexico, Canada, Brasil, Andes, everywhere!

Originally posted by fooffstarr
Interesting though.

Logic tells me they are simply image defects, however, they are all over cloud cover for starters (as Worldwatcher said).

Also, they all seem to be near fairly large population centres.

I just checked and found large groups near Beijing, Moscow, London and New York. Sounds like a B-grade sci-fi movie plot.

I accept I could be talking out of my bottom, but I suspect if ambient noise originating from the ground affected the sensors, cities could increase ambient noise.

OP, and/or people less lazy than myself should drop NASA an email. This sort of stuff is way technical.

It does say on the (OnEarth) site that various errors may be visible, but only in the context of updating the mosaic:

... In general, the latest images are between 6 and 24 hour old. The update process is automated, various errors might be visible. ...

Originally posted by jackphotohobby

Originally posted by fooffstarr

It does say on the (OnEarth) site that various errors may be visible, but only in the context of updating the mosaic:

- Exactly. It seemed to me that there was a lot of masking before and it was removed.

... In general, the latest images are between 6 and 24 hour old. The update process is automated, various errors might be visible. ...

- Look closer, you'll see that those things have 3 dimensional shapes. There's a high chance of not being errors. I've compared the location of the dots to see if they would match cities, no. If it was an error how come you don't see those "errors" outside of clouds?

Originally posted by r00ster
...
- Look closer, you'll see that those things have 3 dimensional shapes. There's a high chance of not being errors. I've compared the location of the dots to see if they would match cities, no. If it was an error how come you don't see those "errors" outside of clouds?

I think it points towards errors in the way the cloud data is processed for display. The sensors do not work in the same way as digital camera sensors. They capture measurements of things we could only estimate using conventional photography - it's likely even if they captured something that is three dimensional it wouldn't look like that when processed.

The images on the site are built up from scientific data rather than captured as a conventional photographic image.

Edit: changed 'digital camera processors' to 'digital camera sensors'. I was been thick.

[edit on 1-2-2009 by jackphotohobby]

what i've been noticing is that all of the little dots/"ships" are the typical 3 colors you find in a printer, red, yellow and blue. This makes me think it's a glitch in the satellite. however, i can't be too sure seeing as how these dots aren't all over the place including in cloud coverage over Washington state and over parts of mid Africa, again, i could be mistaken but that's what it looks like.

Inverted-color close up screen shot.

Those are just street lights.

I have a question about this. When the image was taken, if these were some type of ufos wouldn't some appear blurry because of movement? The dots that I see "appear" pretty clear to me - it seems that some of them would have been moving when the image was taken.

Taking note of the colours of the pixels and I see magenta and cyan. I think it has summit to do with pixelation and clouds. Simple as that.

No scoop me thinks.