Light like those are not really very visible from space. It's more of a dramatic representation to show heavy urban concentration and sprawl. Most the data from those lights come from the Thermal band of various multispectral satellites in orbit (probably Landsat 7, it's cheap and gets more coverage than all the others.)
Ah, well, I could get nitpicky, but its a good bit better than almost anything else I have seen. This Geographer's eyes lit up when a real attempt at a realistic planet was made =)