Sensor Technology for Night Sky Brightness Measurements in Malaysia

Artificial light at night is apparently showing to be a major contributor to the increase of sky brightness at night. The natural darkness in large regions of the world including Malaysia currently is at risk. Hence, some Night Sky Brightness (NSB) measurements in Malaysia were conducted by using several types of light sensors in order to serve quantitative data and spread awareness on this issue. This paper aims to analyze the sensor technology that have been used in night sky brightness measurement in Malaysia as well as to identify recent or significant advances and discoveries in this field of study. In this paper, the author adopted qualitative method through literature review from numerous conducted studies by other researchers in order to perceive better understanding on the use of dedicated light sensor in NSB related research. Starting from 2005 until now, it is noticeable that most of the light sensor used in the NSB studies in Malaysia was Sky Quality Meter (SQM) photometer, equipped with TSL237 sensor which has high irradiance responsivity 2.3kHz/(µW/cm2) @ λp = 524nm and 5 Milion:1 input dynamic range as well as able to sense down to 0.00002 Lux and has typical dark frequency down to 0.1 Hz. The result indicates the relative frequency of the SQM usage in NSB studies was 76% compared to PBM, APC, PMT and CDD of only 4% respectively. SQM has always been the choice of researchers in Malaysia to carry out their sky brightness measurements due to user-friendly implementation besides its reliable data obtained from TSL237 sensor which capable to convert the light directly to frequency without an amplifier or data converter. Thus, the nonlinearities and voltage offsets in the data can be circumvented. A fairly good development of sensor that have been utilized in NSB studies can be discerned patently besides NSB studies will always look forward for a better sensor to further enhance the efforts to map sky brightness for preserving the potential dark sky areas for the sake of astronomy.

Download Full-text

Monitoring Long-Term Trends in the Anthropogenic Night Sky Brightness

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su11113070 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (11) ◽

pp. 3070 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Salvador Bará ◽

Raul C. Lima ◽

Jaime Zamorano

Keyword(s):

Dynamic Range ◽

Average Rate ◽

Monitoring Network ◽

High Dynamic Range ◽

Atmospheric Conditions ◽

Long Term Trends ◽

Sky Brightness ◽

Night Sky ◽

Night Sky Brightness

Monitoring long-term trends in the evolution of the anthropogenic night sky brightness is a demanding task due to the high dynamic range of the artificial and natural light emissions and the high variability of the atmospheric conditions that determine the amount of light scattered in the direction of the observer. In this paper, we analyze the use of a statistical indicator, the mFWHM, to assess the night sky brightness changes over periods of time larger than one year. The mFWHM is formally defined as the average value of the recorded magnitudes contained within the full width at half-maximum region of the histogram peak corresponding to the scattering of artificial light under clear skies in the conditions of a moonless astronomical night (sun below −18°, and moon below −5°). We apply this indicator to the measurements acquired by the 14 SQM detectors of the Galician Night Sky Brightness Monitoring Network during the period 2015–2018. Overall, the available data suggest that the zenithal readings in the Sky Quality Meter (SQM) device-specific photometric band tended to increase during this period of time at an average rate of +0.09 magSQM/arcsec2 per year.

Download Full-text

A survey of night sky brightness at College, Alaska

Transactions American Geophysical Union ◽

10.1029/tr031i004p00541 ◽

1950 ◽

Vol 31 (4) ◽

pp. 541 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

John B. Wilcox

Keyword(s):

Sky Brightness ◽

Night Sky ◽

Night Sky Brightness

Download Full-text

Remote Sensing of Aerosols at Night with the CoSQM Sky Brightness Data

10.20944/preprints202108.0181.v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Charles Marseille ◽

Martin Aubé ◽

Africa Barreto Velasco ◽

Alexandre Simoneau

Keyword(s):

Remote Sensing ◽

Aerosol Optical Depth ◽

Optical Depth ◽

Low Cost ◽

Empirical Relationship ◽

Important Indicator ◽

Sky Brightness ◽

Night Sky ◽

Remote Sensing Techniques ◽

Night Sky Brightness

The aerosol optical depth is an important indicator of aerosol particle properties and associated radiative impacts. AOD determination is therefore very important to achieve relevant climate modeling. Most remote sensing techniques to retrieve aerosol optical depth are applicable to daytime given the high level of light available. The night represents half of the time but in such conditions only a few remote sensing techniques are available. Among these techniques, the most reliable are moon photometers and star photometers. In this paper, we attempt to fill gaps in the aerosol detection performed with the aforementioned techniques using night sky brightness measurements during moonless nights with the novel CoSQM: a portable, low cost and open-source multispectral photometer. In this paper, we present an innovative method for estimating the aerosol optical depth by using an empirical relationship between the zenith night sky brightness measured at night with the CoSQM and the aerosol optical depth retrieved at daytime from the AErosol Robotic NETwork. Such a method is especially suited to light-polluted regions with light pollution sources located within a few kilometers of the observation site. A coherent day-to-night aerosol optical depth and Ångström Exponent evolution in a set of 354 days and nights from August 2019 to February 2021 was verified at the location of Santa Cruz de Tenerife on the island of Tenerife, Spain. The preliminary uncertainty of this technique was evaluated using the variance under stable day-to-night conditions, set at 0.02 for aerosol optical depth and 0.75 for Ångström Exponent. These results indicate the set of CoSQM and the proposed methodology appear to be a promising tool to add new information on the aerosol optical properties at night, which could be of key importance to improve climate predictions.

Download Full-text