The impact of clouds on the brightness of the night sky
Authors:
- Tomasz Ściężor
Abstract
Clouds are a kind of atmospheric factor that most effectively scatters the artificial light coming from the ground. Therefore, they have the most significant impact on the brightness of the night sky. The paper analyses the influence of both the level of cloudiness, as well as the genera of clouds and altitude of its base, on amplifying of the light pollution. The impact of cloudiness on the brightness of the night sky in places with different levels of light pollution was researched. Measurements of meteorological elements were used together with clouds genera assessments. The introduction of an innovative method of identifying some genera of clouds on the base of the all-night continuous measurements of the sky’s brightness allowed for a similar analysis in the absence of observational data specifying the genera of clouds. A linear correlation between the cloudiness and the brightness of the night sky was found. The deter- mined linear correlation parameters allow for specifying the three types of light-polluted areas, possibly related to the density of population. It was found that among the nine genera of the identified night clouds, the Altocumulus, Cirrocumulus, and Cumulonimbus ones are responsible for this correlation. No dependence of the brightness of the night sky on the clouds’ albedo was found. In case of overcast sky, there was a clear relationship between the average altitude of the individual genus of clouds and the brightness of the night sky. Most of the night sky brightness comes from the light scattered on the low- est altitude clouds genera, while the least contribution comes from the light scattered on the high-level clouds. It was also found that at the freezing temperatures, the layer of aerosols forms below the level of the genera Nimbostratus or Stratus. This layer, thickening with the decreasing temperature, additionally scatters the artificial light.
- Record ID
- CUTe7e4f5250cb0482ead1483fbf56be56b
- Publication categories
- ;
- Author
- Journal series
- Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy & Radiative Transfer, ISSN 0022-4073, e-ISSN 1879-1352
- Issue year
- 2020
- Vol
- 247
- Pages
- [1-13]
- Article number
- 106962
- Other elements of collation
- mapy; schem.; tab.; wykr.; Bibliografia (na s.) - 12-13; Bibliografia (liczba pozycji) - 59; Oznaczenie streszczenia - Abstr.; Numeracja w czasopiśmie - Vol. 247
- Keywords in English
- light pollution, clouds, cloudiness, sky glow, scattering of light
- DOI
- DOI:10.1016/j.jqsrt.2020.106962 Opening in a new tab
- URL
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022407319308726?via%3Dihub Opening in a new tab
- Language
- eng (en) English
- License
- Score (nominal)
- 100
- Additional fields
- Indeksowana w: Web of Science, Scopus
- Uniform Resource Identifier
- https://cris.pk.edu.pl/info/article/CUTe7e4f5250cb0482ead1483fbf56be56b/
- URN
urn:pkr-prod:CUTe7e4f5250cb0482ead1483fbf56be56b
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