Night-sky radiometry can revolutionize the characterization of light-pollution sources globally
Open Access
- 16 April 2019
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
- Vol. 116 (16), 7712-7717
- https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1900153116
Abstract
The city emission function (CEF), describing the angular emission from an entire city as a light source, is one of the key elements in night-sky radiance models. The CEF describes the rate at which skyglow depends on distance and is indispensable in any prediction of light-pollution propagation into nocturnal environments. Nevertheless, the CEF remains virtually unexplored because appropriate retrieval tools have been unavailable until very recently. A CEF has now been obtained from ground-based night-sky observations and establishes an experiment successfully conducted in the field to retrieve the angular emission function for an urban area. The field campaign was conducted near the city of Los Mochis, Mexico, which is well isolated from other cities and thus dominates all light emissions in its vicinity. The experiment has proven that radiometry of a night sky can provide information on the light output pattern of a distant city and allows for systematic, full-area, and cost-efficient CEF monitoring worldwide. A database of CEFs could initiate a completely new phase in light-pollution research, with significant economy and advanced accuracy of night-sky brightness predictions. The experiment and its interpretation represent unique progress in the field and contribute to our fundamental understanding of the mechanism by which direct and reflected uplight interact while forming the CEF.Keywords
Funding Information
- Slovak Research and Development Agency (APVV-18-0014)
- Slovak Academy of Sciences (MVTS)
- Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic | Agentúra Ministerstva Školstva, Vedy, Výskumu a Športu SR (VEGA 2/0016/16)
- Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (# 2723)
This publication has 38 references indexed in Scilit:
- Evaluating Potential Spectral Impacts of Various Artificial Lights on Melatonin Suppression, Photosynthesis, and Star VisibilityPLOS ONE, 2013
- REVIEW: Reducing the ecological consequences of night‐time light pollution: options and developmentsJournal of Applied Ecology, 2012
- From The Ground Up I: Light Pollution Sources in Flagstaff, ArizonaPublications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 2009
- From the Ground Up II: Sky Glow and Near-Ground Artificial Light Propagation in Flagstaff, ArizonaPublications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 2009
- Measuring Night‐Sky Brightness with a Wide‐Field CCD CameraPublications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 2007
- Leaf optical responses to light and soil nutrient availability in temperate deciduous treesAmerican Journal of Botany, 2005
- Light scattering by polydispersions of randomly oriented spheroids with sizes comparable to wavelengths of observationApplied Optics, 1994
- Light Pollution in California and ArizonaPublications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 1973
- Reflectance and Transmittance of Light by LeavesPlant Physiology, 1971
- The California Site SurveyPublications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 1970