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| Author | Kyba, C.C.M.; Ruhtz, T.; Fischer, J.; Hölker, F. | ||||
| Title | Red is the new black: how the colour of urban skyglow varies with cloud cover | Type | Journal Article | ||
| Year | 2012 | Publication | Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society | Abbreviated Journal | Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society |
Volume  |
425 | Issue | 1 | Pages | 701-708 |
| Keywords | Keywords: skyglow; radiative transfer; atmospheric effects; instrumentation: detectors; light pollution | ||||
| Abstract | The development of street lamps based on solid-state lighting technology is likely to introduce a major change in the colour of urban skyglow (one form of light pollution). We demonstrate the need for long-term monitoring of this trend by reviewing the influences it is likely to have on disparate fields. We describe a prototype detector which is able to monitor these changes, and could be produced at a cost low enough to allow extremely widespread use. Using the detector, we observed the differences in skyglow radiance in red, green and blue channels. We find that clouds increase the radiance of red light by a factor of 17.6, which is much larger than that for blue (7.1). We also find that the gradual decrease in sky radiance observed on clear nights in Berlin appears to be most pronounced at longer wavelengths. | ||||
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| Language | Summary Language | Original Title | |||
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| Series Volume | Series Issue | Edition | |||
| ISSN | 0035-8711 | ISBN | Medium | ||
| Area | Expedition | Conference | |||
| Notes | Approved | no | |||
| Call Number | IDA @ john @ | Serial | 272 | ||
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| Author | Dacke, M.; Nilsson, D.-E.; Scholtz, C.H.; Byrne, M.; Warrant, E.J. | ||||
| Title | Animal behaviour: insect orientation to polarized moonlight | Type | Journal Article | ||
| Year | 2003 | Publication | Nature | Abbreviated Journal | Nature |
| Volume |
424 | Issue | 6944 | Pages | 33 |
| Keywords | Adaptation, Physiological/physiology; Animals; Beetles/*physiology; Feces; Feeding Behavior/physiology; *Light; Locomotion/*physiology; *Moon; Orientation/*physiology; Scarabaeus zambesianus | ||||
| Abstract | Moonlight, like sunlight, scatters when it strikes tiny particles in the atmosphere, giving rise to celestial polarization patterns. Here we show that an African dung beetle, Scarabaeus zambesianus, uses the polarization of a moonlit sky to orientate itself so that it can move along a straight line. Many creatures use the Sun's light-polarization pattern to orientate themselves, but S. zambesianus is the first animal known to use the million-times dimmer polarization of moonlight for this purpose. | ||||
| Address | Department of Cell and Organism Biology, University of Lund, 223 62 Lund, Sweden. marie.dacke@cob.lu.se | ||||
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| Language | English | Summary Language | Original Title | ||
| Series Editor | Series Title | Abbreviated Series Title | |||
| Series Volume | Series Issue | Edition | |||
| ISSN | 0028-0836 | ISBN | Medium | ||
| Area | Expedition | Conference | |||
| Notes | PMID:12840748 | Approved | no | ||
| Call Number | IDA @ john @ | Serial | 242 | ||
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| Author | Aubé, M.; Kocifaj, M. | ||||
| Title | Using two light-pollution models to investigate artificial sky radiances at Canary Islands observatories: Light-pollution models and artificial sky radiances | Type | Journal Article | ||
| Year | 2012 | Publication | Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society | Abbreviated Journal | |
| Volume |
422 | Issue | 1 | Pages | 819-830 |
| Keywords | Keywords: radiative transfer; atmospheric effects; light pollution; methods: observational; site testing | ||||
| Abstract | Astronomical observations are increasingly limited by light pollution, which is a product of the over-illumination of the night sky. To predict both the angular distribution of scattered light and the ground-reaching radiative fluxes, a set of models has been introduced in recent decades. Two distinct numerical tools, MSNsRAu and ILLUMINA, are compared in this paper, with the aim of identifying their strengths and weaknesses. The numerical experiment comprises the simulation of spectral radiances in the region of the Canary Islands. In particular, the light fields near the Roque de los Muchachos and Teide observatories are computed under various turbidity conditions. It is shown that ILLUMINA has enhanced accuracy at low elevation angles. However, ILLUMINA is time-consuming because of the two scattering orders incorporated into the calculation scheme. Under low-turbidity conditions and for zenith angles smaller than 70° the two models agree well, and thus can be successfully applied to typical cloudless situations at the majority of observatories. MSNsRAu is well optimized for large-scale simulations. In particular, the grid size is adapted dynamically depending on the distance between a light source and a hypothetical observer. This enables rapid numerical modelling for large territories. MSNsRAu is also well suited for the mass modelling of night-sky radiances after ground-based light sources are hypothetically changed. This enables an optimum design of public lighting systems and a time-efficient evaluation of the optical effects related to different lamp spectra or different lamp distributions. ILLUMINA provides two diagnostic geographical maps to help local authorities concerned about light-pollution control. The first map allows the identification of the relative contribution of each ground element to the observed sky radiance at a given viewing angle, while the second map gives the sensitivity, basically saying how each ground element contributes per lumen installed. | ||||
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| Publisher | Place of Publication | Editor | |||
| Language | Summary Language | Original Title | |||
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| Series Volume | Series Issue | Edition | |||
| ISSN | 0035-8711 | ISBN | Medium | ||
| Area | Expedition | Conference | |||
| Notes | Approved | no | |||
| Call Number | IDA @ john @ | Serial | 256 | ||
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| Author | Crumey, A. | ||||
| Title | Human Contrast Threshold and Astronomical Visibility. | Type | Journal Article | ||
| Year | 2014 | Publication | Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society | Abbreviated Journal | MNRAS |
| Volume |
422 | Issue | 3 | Pages | 2600-2619 |
| Keywords | Vision; visibility; skyglow; sky brightness; modeling | ||||
| Abstract | The standard visibility model in light-pollution studies is the formula of Hecht, as used e.g. by Schaefer. However, it is applicable only to point sources and is shown to be of limited accuracy. A new visibility model is presented for uniform achromatic targets of any size against background luminances ranging from zero to full daylight, produced by a systematic procedure applicable to any appropriate data set (e.g. Blackwell's), and based on a simple but previously unrecognized empirical relation between contrast threshold and adaptation luminance. The scotopic luminance correction for variable spectral radiance (colour index) is calculated. For point sources, the model is more accurate than Hecht's formula and is verified using telescopic data collected at Mount Wilson in 1947, enabling the sky brightness at that time to be determined. The result is darker than the calculation by Garstang, implying that light pollution grew more rapidly in subsequent decades than has been supposed. The model is applied to the nebular observations of William Herschel, enabling his visual performance to be quantified. Proposals are made regarding sky quality indicators for public use. | ||||
| Address | Department of Humanities, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8ST, UK; andrew.crumey(at)northumbria.ac.uk | ||||
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| Publisher | Oxford Journals | Place of Publication | Editor | ||
| Language | English | Summary Language | English | Original Title | |
| Series Editor | Series Title | Abbreviated Series Title | |||
| Series Volume | Series Issue | Edition | |||
| ISSN | 0035-8711 | ISBN | Medium | ||
| Area | Expedition | Conference | |||
| Notes | Approved | no | |||
| Call Number | LoNNe @ christopher.kyba @ | Serial | 536 | ||
| Permanent link to this record | |||||
| Author | Biggs, J.D.; Fouché, T.; Bilki, F.; Zadnik, M.G. | ||||
| Title | Measuring and mapping the night sky brightness of Perth, Western Australia: Night sky brightness of Perth | Type | Journal Article | ||
| Year | 2012 | Publication | Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society | Abbreviated Journal | |
| Volume |
421 | Issue | 2 | Pages | 1450-1464 |
| Keywords | scattering; atmospheric effects; light pollution; techniques: photometric | ||||
| Abstract | In order to study the light pollution produced in the city of Perth, Western Australia, we have used a hand-held sky brightness meter to measure the night sky brightness across the city. The data acquired facilitated the creation of a contour map of night sky brightness across the 2400 km2 area of the city – the first such map to be produced for a city. Importantly, this map was created using a methodology borrowed from the field of geophysics – the well proven and rigorous techniques of geostatistical analysis and modelling. A major finding of this study is the effect of land use on night sky brightness. By overlaying the night sky brightness map on to a suitably processed Landsat satellite image of Perth we found that locations near commercial and/or light industrial areas have a brighter night sky, whereas locations used for agriculture or having high vegetation coverage have a fainter night sky than surrounding areas. Urban areas have intermediate amounts of vegetation and are intermediate in brightness compared with the above-mentioned land uses. Regions with a higher density of major highways also appear to contribute to increased night sky brightness. When corrected for the effects of direct illumination from high buildings, we found that the night sky brightness in the central business district (CBD) is very close to that expected for a city of Perth’s population from modelling work and observations obtained in earlier studies. Given that our night sky brightness measurements in Perth over 2009 and 2010 are commensurate with that measured in Canadian cities over 30 years earlier implies that the various lighting systems employed in Perth (and probably most other cities) have not been optimised to minimize light pollution over that time. We also found that night sky brightness diminished with distance with an exponent of approximately −0.25 ± 0.02 from 3.5 to 10 km from the Perth CBD, a region characterized by urban and commercial land use. For distances from 10 out to about 40 km from the CBD the radial variation of night sky brightness steepens to have an exponent value of approximately −1.8 ± 0.2. This steepening is associated with land use because vegetation cover increases with further distance from the CBD. |
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| Address | Curtin Institute of Radio Astronomy, Department of Imaging and Applied Physics, Curtin University, Bentley 6102, WA, Australia | ||||
| Corporate Author | Thesis | ||||
| Publisher | Place of Publication | Editor | |||
| Language | Summary Language | Original Title | |||
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| Series Volume | Series Issue | Edition | |||
| ISSN | 0035-8711 | ISBN | Medium | ||
| Area | Expedition | Conference | |||
| Notes | Approved | no | |||
| Call Number | IDA @ john @ | Serial | 257 | ||
| Permanent link to this record | |||||