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Aubé, M. (2015). Physical behaviour of anthropogenic light propagation into the nocturnal environment. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci, 370, 20140117.
Abstract: Propagation of artificial light at night (ALAN) in the environment is now known to have non negligible consequences on fauna, flora and human health. These consequences depend on light levels and their spectral power distributions, which in turn rely on the efficiency of various physical processes involved in the radiative transfer of this light into the atmosphere and its interactions with the built and natural environment. ALAN can affect the living organisms by direct lighting and indirect lighting (scattered by the sky and clouds and/or reflected by local surfaces). This paper mainly focuses on the behaviour of the indirect light scattered under clear sky conditions. Various interaction processes between anthropogenic light sources and the natural environment are discussed. This work mostly relies on a sensitivity analysis conducted with the light pollution radiative transfer model, Illumina (Aubé et al. 2005: Light pollution modelling and detection in a heterogeneous environment: toward a night-time aerosol optical depth retrieval method. In Proc. SPIE 2005, vol. 5890, San Diego, California, USA). More specifically, the impact of (i) the molecular and aerosol scattering and absorption, (ii) the second order of scattering, (iii) the topography and obstacle blocking, (iv) the ground reflectance and (v) the spectrum of light devices and their angular emission functions are examined. This analysis considers different behaviour as a function of the distance from the city centre, along with different zenith viewing angles in the principal plane.
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Aubé, M., & Kocifaj, M. (2012). Using two light-pollution models to investigate artificial sky radiances at Canary Islands observatories: Light-pollution models and artificial sky radiances. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 422(1), 819–830.
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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Aubé, M., & Roby, J. (2014). Sky brightness levels before and after the creation of the first International Dark Sky Reserve, Mont-Mégantic Observatory, Québec, Canada. JQSRT, 139, 52–63.
Abstract: In 2007, the area around the Mont-Mégantic Observatory (MMO) was officially certified by the International Dark-Sky Association and the Royal Astronomy Association of Canada as the first International Dark Sky Reserve (IDSR). In order to be able to investigate the impact of Artificial Light at Night on night sky brightness before and after the establishment of the IDSR, we used a heterogeneous artificial sky brightness model including an implicit calculation of 2nd order scattering (ILLUMINA) developed by Martin Aubé's group. This model generates three kinds of outputs: the sky radiance at the given site, observing angle and wavelength and the corresponding contribution and sensitivity maps. The maps allow for the identification of the origin of the sky radiance according to each part of the surrounding territory. For summer clear sky conditions, the results show that replacing light fixtures within a 25 km radius around the MMO with cut-off High Pressure Sodium devices and reducing the total installed radiant power to ~40% of its initial level are very efficient ways of reducing artificial sky brightness. The artificial sky brightness reduction at zenith observed after the establishment of the IDSR was ~50% in the 546 nm mercury spectral line, while the reduction obtained in the 569 nm sodium line was ~30%. A large part of that reduction can be associated to the reduction in radiant power. The contribution and sensitivity maps highlight critical zones where any changes in the lighting infrastructure have the most important impact on sky brightness at the MMO. Contribution and sensitivity maps have been used to analyze the detailed origin of sky brightness reduction. The results of this study are intended to support authorities in the management of their lighting infrastructure with the goal of reducing sky brightness. The results have been shared with MMO officials and are being used as a tool to improve sky quality at the observatory.
Keywords: Skyglow; measurements; metrology; Mont-Mégantic; Quebec; Canada; modelling; radiative transfer; sky quality; sky brightness
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Barentine, J. C., Walker, C. E., Kocifaj, M., Kundracik, F., Juan, A., Kanemoto, J., et al. (2018). Skyglow Changes Over Tucson, Arizona, Resulting From A Municipal LED Street Lighting Conversion. Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer, 212, 10–23.
Abstract: The transition from earlier lighting technologies to white light-emitting diodes (LEDs) is a significant change in the use of artificial light at night. LEDs emit considerably more short-wavelength light into the environment than earlier technologies on a per-lumen basis. Radiative transfer models predict increased skyglow over cities transitioning to LED unless the total lumen output of new lighting systems is reduced. The City of Tucson, Arizona (U.S.), recently converted its municipal street lighting system from a mixture of fully shielded high- and low-pressure sodium (HPS/LPS) luminaires to fully shielded 3000 K white LED luminaires. The lighting design intended to minimize increases to skyglow in order to protect the sites of nearby astronomical observatories without compromising public safety. This involved the migration of over 445 million fully shielded HPS/LPS lumens to roughly 142 million fully shielded 3000 K white LED lumens and an expected concomitant reduction in the amount of visual skyglow over Tucson. SkyGlow Simulator models predict skyglow decreases on the order of 10-20% depending on whether fully shielded or partly shielded lights are in use. We tested this prediction using visual night sky brightness estimates and luminance-calibrated, panchromatic all-sky imagery at 15 locations in and near the city. Data were obtained in 2014, before the LED conversion began, and in mid-2017 after approximately 95% of ~18,000 luminaires was converted. Skyglow differed marginally, and in all cases with valid data changed by <±20%. Over the same period, the city’s upward-directed optical radiance detected from Earth orbit decreased by approximately 7%. While these results are not conclusive, they suggest that LED conversions paired with dimming can reduce skyglow over cities.
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Bierman, A. (2012). Will switching to LED outdoor lighting increase sky glow? Lighting Research and Technology, 44(4), 449–458.
Abstract: As LED sources are increasingly being used for outdoor lighting, concerns are being raised about their impact on man-made sky glow. This paper compares the amount of light scattered back to Earth from a 6500 K phosphor-converted white LED light source to that from a 2050 K high pressure sodium (HPS) light source. Calculations based solely on molecular Rayleigh scattering provide an upper limit of 22% more scatter from the LED source, but are not realistic because the atmosphere has significant scatter from aerosol content. Adding in the effects of aerosols in the atmosphere, as derived from aerosol optical depth measurements and Mie scattering distributions, reduces the wavelength dependency of scattered light to where the LED source has roughly 10–20% more scattered light contributing to sky glow. Scattering ratios (LED:HPS) are calculated for different angles and atmospheric conditions.
Keywords: LED; light emitting diode; skyglow; light pollution; modeling; Radiative transfer
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