Effect of street lighting on the urban and rural night-time radiance and the brightness of the night sky
Authors:
- Tomasz Ściężor
Abstract
In April 2020, due to the coronavirus pandemic and the tourism decrease in Cracow (Poland), the Road Authority of the City of Cracow, followed by the authorities of several neighbouring municipalities, decided to turn off street lighting at night. It is worth noting that this is the first time that street lighting has been turned off in such a large area on a longer time frame at this scale, including one of the most populated cities in Poland, which made it possible to make unique observations. During this period, with the help of small night‐sky radiance meters (Sky Quality Meters (SQM)), many ground‐based measurements were made, both within the city and in its vicinity. For this purpose, the existing light pollution monitoring stations in Cracow and neighbouring cities were used. It was found that after switching off street lighting, the zenith surface brightness of the cloudless sky decreased by 15–39%, and this value was proportional to the cityʹs population. The night‐time light satellite data (VIIRS/DNB) on radiance from Cracow and neighbouring communes were also analysed, both their daily values as well as monthly and annual averages. It was found that in the case of a large city such as Cracow, turning off all street lighting reduces the amount of light energy radiated into the sky by about 50%, which is a relatively small decrease in radiance, while reducing the surface brightness of the night sky by about 40%, regardless of the state of the atmosphere. The effect of a significant decrease in radiance as a result of switching off street lighting was found in each of the analysed communes, especially the urbanised ones.
- Record ID
- CUTb8aadd13deca43ddaa87a5b9e5e1eaba
- Publication categories
- ;
- Author
- Journal series
- Remote Sensing, ISSN , e-ISSN 2072-4292, Biweekly
- Issue year
- 2021
- Vol
- 13
- No
- 9
- Pages
- [1-41]
- Article number
- 1654
- Other elements of collation
- fot.; mapy; plany; tab.; wykr.; Bibliografia (na s.) - 38-41; Bibliografia (liczba pozycji) - 80; Oznaczenie streszczenia - Abstr.; Numeracja w czasopiśmie - Vol. 13, Iss. 9, Spec. Iss.
- Substantive notes
- Special Issue: Light Pollution Monitoring Using Remote Sensing Data
- Keywords in English
- light pollution, remote sensing, radiance, street lightning, artificial sky glow
- DOI
- DOI:10.3390/rs13091654 Opening in a new tab
- URL
- https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/13/9/1654/htm 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/CUTb8aadd13deca43ddaa87a5b9e5e1eaba/
- URN
urn:pkr-prod:CUTb8aadd13deca43ddaa87a5b9e5e1eaba
* presented citation count is obtained through Internet information analysis, and it is close to the number calculated by the Publish or PerishOpening in a new tab system.