How Infrastructure Works

access to more resources leads so universally and predictably to an increase in artificial light that researchers have even used it as a proxy for economic growth, observing how nighttime satellite images of a particular region glow more brightly over time. Developed regions are brighter than comparable regions in less developed areas. South Korea, for example, blazes from coast to coast, with a clear shoreline. But after years of sanctions and scarcity, North Korea is nearly invisible in nighttime images except for a faint cobweb of light reaching out from the capital of Pyongyang.