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. ...