Let’s turn off the lights and turn on the night: to the rescue of starlight in an age of artificial lighting

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (S367) ◽  
pp. 328-331
Author(s):  
Andrea Sosa
Keyword(s):  
Milky Way ◽  
Light Pollution ◽  
Global Level ◽  
Light At Night ◽  
Artificial Lighting ◽  
Inappropriate Use ◽  
Turn On ◽  
Science Philosophy ◽  
Night Sky

AbstractOur ancestors contemplated an inspiring night sky of science, philosophy, art … today, it is estimated that one third of the world’s population have never seen the Milky Way. The progressive degradation of the quality of the night sky due to an inappropriate use of the artificial light at night, as well to other sources of sky pollution, must be considered as the fundamental loss of a scientific, cultural and environmental heritage of humanity.In this public talk we summarized the most relevant aspects of light pollution, the reasons for promoting good lighting to protect dark skies, and some of the initiatives at a global level that are being developed to preserve the darkness of the night sky.

scholarly journals Perceptions, Practices and Principles: Increasing Awareness of ‘Night Sky’ in Urban Landscapes

SURG Journal ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-62
Author(s):  
Robin Mosseri
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Public Perception ◽  
Light Pollution ◽  
Urban Landscapes ◽  
Public Realm ◽  
Artificial Lighting ◽  
Design Considerations ◽  
Planning And Design ◽  
Night Sky ◽  
Natural Cycles

In urban centres the natural cycles of day and night have dramatically been altered by artificial lighting, creating a perpetually lit environment that is rarely considered an issue. Artificial lights are illuminating roadways, structures and public plazas with lighting schemes that are, in most cases, inefficient. Consequently, light pollution has greatly impacted the night by reflecting and refracting light into the atmosphere. Without appropriate consideration of integrating artificial lighting into the urban environment, our “night sky” experience is at risk due to poor approaches to public realm design. This study qualitatively explores light pollution analyzing it based on the environment, society and economy as a whole. A literature review, key informants, and case studies contribute to a greater understanding of light and create a framework to develop a design reference to light efficient urban development. This study examines the need for a shift in public perception, broadening an understanding of the effects of light pollution, and provides design considerations to aid urban night sky awareness, planning and design.

scholarly journals Preface: Special Session SpS17 Light Pollution: Protecting Astronomical Sites and Increasing Global Awareness Through Education

2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (H16) ◽  
pp. 723-723
Keyword(s):  
General Assembly ◽  
Light Pollution ◽  
Special Session ◽  
Global Awareness ◽  
International Astronomical Union ◽  
Light At Night ◽  
International Astronomical ◽  
Night Sky ◽  
The Right ◽  
The City

The issue of Light Pollution was a major concern of the International Astronomical Union; during the IAU General Assembly in the city of Rio de Janeiro in 2009. A resolution was unanimously adopted (Resolution B5) to support the need to preserve the night sky and the right to see stars. With the increasing use of artificial light at night posing a growing threat to the visibility of the night sky, this Special Session at the XXVIIIth General Assembly highlighted technical aspects of astronomical site protection and the educational aspects of increasing global awareness on issues concerning light pollution.

scholarly journals Air pollution mitigation can reduce the brightness of the night sky in and near cities

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Miroslav Kocifaj ◽  
John C. Barentine
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Light Pollution ◽  
Light Sources ◽  
Light At Night ◽  
Atmospheric Scattering ◽  
Environmental Consequences ◽  
Reduction Techniques ◽  
Night Sky ◽  
Path Lengths ◽  
Night Sky Brightness

AbstractLight pollution is a novel environmental problem whose extent and severity are rapidly increasing. Among other concerns, it threatens global biodiversity, nocturnal animal migration, and the integrity of the ground-based astronomy research enterprise. The most familiar manifestation of light pollution is skyglow, the result of the interplay of outdoor artificial light at night (ALAN) and atmospheric scattering that obscures views of naturally dark night skies. Interventions to reduce night sky brightness (NSB) involving the adoption of modern lighting technologies are expected to yield the greatest positive environmental consequences, but other aspects of the problem have not been fully explored as bases for public policies aimed at reducing light pollution. Here we show that reducing air pollution, specifically aerosols, decreases NSB by tens of percent at relatively small distances from light sources. Cleaner city air lowers aerosol optical depth and darkens night skies, particularly in directions toward light sources, due to relatively short path lengths traversed by photons from source to observer. A field experiment demonstrating the expected changes when transitioning from conditions of elevated turbidity to cleaner air validated our hypothesis. Our results suggest new policy actions to augment and enhance existing light pollution reduction techniques targeting lighting technology and design.

scholarly journals Session 21.2 – Measurement of Light at Night

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (A29A) ◽  
pp. 444-452
Author(s):  
Richard J. Wainscoat
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Mercury Vapor ◽  
Light Pollution ◽  
Digital Cameras ◽  
Light At Night ◽  
Quantitative Measurements ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Sky Brightness ◽  
Night Sky ◽  
Monitoring And Measurement

AbstractThe introduction of the mercury vapor lamp for general lighting in the 1930s probably marked the beginning of significant light pollution. Lighting levels have increased slowly, year-to-year, with sky brightness levels increasing only slowly on timescales of a year; no measurement protocols or instruments existed to quantify this increase. However, on timescales of 10--20 years, or on generational timescales, the increases in night sky levels, particularly in urban areas, have been dramatic. Younger people speak with their parents or grandparents who remark how beautiful the sky used to be, and how many stars they could see when they when they were younger. Older people can themselves remember how many stars were visible in the sky when they were younger. Whole generations of children now grow up without ever seeing the Milky Way.Society has not had tools to easily measure sky brightness, and monitoring from space has only recently become available. A subtle increase of 10% sky brightness per year, for example, is not noticeable to the human eye on the time scale of a year, and has been tolerated by society. But such an increase compounds to an increase of a factor 2.6 in 10 years, 6.7 in 20 years, and a factor 45 in 40 years, corresponding to a dramatic increase in sky brightness, an almost complete loss in ability to see faint objects in the night sky, and rendering the sky unusable for most forms of astronomy. The most striking examples are the urban observatories found in many major cities that can no longer be used.Session 2 was primarily focused on measurement of light at night, with an emphasis on measurement of light pollution. It comprised of 6 papers that are summarized below. Over the last decade, our ability to measure light pollution has grown tremendously, and the instrumentation needed to produce reliable quantitative measurements has become much more affordable, and now includes consumer grade digital cameras and even smart phones. During this same time period, light pollution has continued to grow. The widespread changes from mostly high-pressure sodium lighting to LED lighting that are now occurring make continued monitoring and measurement of light pollution particularly important into the future.Complete presentations may be viewed at: http://www.noao.edu/education/IAUGA2015FM21

scholarly journals Light and territoriality : A preliminary report on a capture-recapture study of common Blackbird (Turdus Merula)

2021 ◽  
Vol 46 ◽  
pp. 157-171
Author(s):  
József Gyurácz ◽  
Zoltán Lukács ◽  
Péter Molnár ◽  
Zoltán Kolláth
Keyword(s):  
Preliminary Report ◽  
Morphological Characteristics ◽  
Light Pollution ◽  
Light Conditions ◽  
Apparent Survival ◽  
Artificial Lighting ◽  
Capture Recapture ◽  
Evolutionary Consequences ◽  
Common Blackbird

The natural light conditions and the artificial lighting of the habitats affect the quality of bird territories and the territorial behaviour of birds. However, we know almost nothing about the evolutionary consequences of light on birds. In the biomonitoring part of the project entitled “ Development of international research environment for light pollution studies”, which is carried on in Bárdudvarnok in Somogy county, Hungary, we study the apparent survival probability, adaptive morphological characteristics and area fidelity in Common Blackbird populations living in territories under different light conditions. In this preliminary report, we also describe the methods of our studies - individual marking of birds, capture and recapture, measurement of body weight, wing length and other ecomorphological parameters - and the types of data collected. Based on the outcomes of the data collection planned to continue for several years, we can formulate proposals for the design and application of artificial lighting resulting in the reduction of the adverse effects of light pollution.

scholarly journals Study on the Change Characters of the Urban Spatial Light Pollution from Ground to Zenith

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ming Liu ◽  
Baogang Zhang ◽  
Qingli Hao ◽  
Xiaowei Guo ◽  
Weishan Li
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Urban Canopy ◽  
Light Environment ◽  
Ground Layer ◽  
Color Temperature ◽  
Light Pollution ◽  
Canopy Layer ◽  
Artificial Lighting ◽  
Urban Canopy Layer ◽  
Night Sky

As the problem of light pollution becomes more serious, more and more scholars pay attention to this issue and carry out related research. In the perspective of cities, the measurements of light pollution mainly focus on the brightness of the sky or artificial lighting on the ground. However, there is lack of research on the whole urban space. With the two-dimensional brightness analyses, this paper processes the changes of the light environment of the whole urban space into image quantization. It gets the 3D and 2D light environment changes of luminance distribution, color temperature distribution and chromaticity in the three space layers, the ground layer, the urban canopy layer and the sky layer, from dusk with natural light to night with artificial lighting completely. It is found that the brightness difference between the light environments among the three city levels gradually reduces with the measuring time, and the final values maintain at 0.11~0.25 cd/m2. In the ground layer, the light environment is mainly affected by the lighting facilities, and vegetation can prevent the light from scattering up. The light environment of the urban canopy layer is the brightest in the whole city space and has the largest influence on the sky layer. The color concentrates in the range of yellow and red. The color temperature near the ground distributes in 3000K~15000K, and near the sky distributes in 2300K~2700K which is warmer than the natural night sky. The sky brightness of Dalian city is about 951 times than the natural night sky. 

scholarly journals Perceptions of Light Pollution and its Impacts: Results of an Irish Citizen Science Survey

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (15) ◽  
pp. 5628
Author(s):  
Andrew N. Coogan ◽  
Michael Cleary-Gaffney ◽  
Megan Finnegan ◽  
Georgia McMillan ◽  
Ainhoa González ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Citizen Science ◽  
Public Perceptions ◽  
Light Pollution ◽  
Light At Night ◽  
Quality Of Life Research ◽  
Rural Settings ◽  
National Newspaper ◽  
Area Of Concern ◽  
The Impact

Background: Light pollution is increasingly an area of concern for health and quality of life research. Somewhat surprisingly, there are relatively few descriptions of perceptions of light pollution in the literature. The current study examined such perceptions in a Irish sample. Methods: A survey was circulated as part of a citizen science initiative of a national newspaper; the survey included questions regarding night sky brightness and the impact of light at night on sleep and animal behaviour. Complete responses from 462 respondents were analysed. Results: Urban location was, as anticipated, associated with reported brighter night skies, and public lighting was reported as the main source of light at night for urban settings, whilst neighbours’ domestic lighting was the most commonly reported source for rural settings. Respondents from rural settings were more likely to report that light at night impinged on sleep, whilst city dwellers were more likely to report recent changes in wildlife behaviour. Conclusions: Citizen science approaches may be useful in gathering data on public perceptions of light pollution and its impacts. In the current study, this perception was strongly influenced by location, highlighting the importance of assessing experiences and attitudes across a number of geographical settings.

scholarly journals The magnificent night sky — why it must be protected from light pollution

2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (S260) ◽  
pp. 442-448
Author(s):  
Richard J. Wainscoat
Keyword(s):  
Light Pollution ◽  
Artificial Light ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
Light At Night ◽  
Dark Night ◽  
Remote Locations ◽  
Sky Brightness ◽  
Night Sky ◽  
Modern Astronomy

AbstractThe view of the night sky from most of the populated regions of Earth is now seriously compromised by light pollution. An entire generation of citizens is now growing up without ever having the opportunity to gaze upon the magnificent night sky from a dark location. Much of modern astronomy involves study of faint objects, often with brightnesses similar to or fainter than the night sky. Astronomers are therefore extremely vulnerable to increases in sky brightness from light pollution. Despite their remote locations, the dark night skies over the major optical observatories are increasingly threatened by growth of artificial light at night.

LIGHTING AND PERFORMANCE: AN ANALYSIS ON LIGHTING EFFICIENCY OF ARCHITECTURE STUDIO

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 92
Author(s):  
Fazidah Hanim Husain
Keyword(s):  
Learning Environment ◽  
Comfort Level ◽  
Artificial Lighting ◽  
Level Measurement ◽  
Acceptable Range ◽  
Creative Learning ◽  
Illuminance Level ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Effect Of Light

Lighting is one of the key elements in any space and building infrastructure. Good design for an area in the building requires sufficient light that contributes to the efficiency of the activities. The correct method allows natural light to transmit, reduce heat and glare in providing a conducive learning environment. Light plays a significant influence to the quality of space and contributes focus of the students in an architecture studio. Previous research has shown that the effect of light also controlled emotions, behavior, and mood of the students. The operations of artificial lighting that have been used most of the time in an architecture studio during day and night may create lavishness and inadequacy at the same time. Therefore, this paper focuses on the identifying the quality of light for the architecture studio in UiTM (Perak), to instill a creative learning environment. Several methodologies adopted in this study such as illuminance level measurement using lux meter (LM-8100), and a questionnaire survey in gauging the lighting comfort level from students’ perspective. The study revealed that the illuminance level in the architecture studio is insufficient and not in the acceptable range stated in the Malaysian: Standards 1525:2007 and  not evenly distributed.  The study also concluded that the current studio environment is not condusive and appears monotonous. 

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