Abstract: The Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA) and the City of Seattle partnered to evaluate the future of solid state street lighting in the Pacific Northwest with a two-night demonstration in Seattle's Ballard neighborhood in March 2012. The study evaluates the effectiveness of LED streetlights on nighttime driver object detection visibility as function of light source spectral distribution (color temperature in degrees K) and light distribution. Clanton & Associates and VTTI also evaluated adaptive lighting (tuning of streetlights during periods of reduced vehicular and pedestrian activity) at three levels: one hundred percent of full light output, fifty percent of full light output, and twenty-five percent of full light output. The study, led by Clanton & Associates, Continuum Industries, and the VTTI, built upon previous visual performance studies conducted in Anchorage, Alaska; San Diego, California; and San Jose, California. The use of LED technology for city street lighting is becoming more widespread. While these lights are primarily touted for their energy efficiency, the combination of LEDs with advanced control technology, changes to lighting criteria, and a better understanding of human mesopic (low light level) visibility creates an enormous potential for energy savings and improved motorist and pedestrian visibility and safety. Data from these tests support the following statements: LED luminaires with a correlated color temperature of 4100K provide the highest detection distance, including statistically significantly better detection distance when compared to HPS luminaires of higher wattage. The non-uniformity of the lighting on the roadway surface provides a visibility enhancement and greater contrast for visibility. Contrast of objects, both positive and negative, is a better indicator of visibility than is average luminance level. Dimming the LED luminaires to fifty percent of IES RP-8 levels did not significantly reduce object detection distance in dry pavement conditions. Participants perceived dimming of sidewalks as less acceptable than dimming to the same level on the roadway. Asymmetric lighting did reduce glare and performed similarly to the symmetric lighting at the same color temperature (4100K).

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.

Abstract: Human vision provides useful information about the shape and color of the objects around us. It works well in many, but not all, lighting conditions. Since the advent of human-made light sources, it has been important to understand how illumination affects vision quality, but this has been surprisingly difficult. The widespread introduction of solid-state light emitters has increased the urgency of this problem. Experts still debate how lighting can best enable high-quality vision-a key issue since about one-fifth of global electrical power production is used to make light. Photometry, the measurement of the visual quantity of light, is well established, yet significant uncertainties remain. Colorimetry, the measurement of color, has achieved good reproducibility, but researchers still struggle to understand how illumination can best enable high-quality color vision. Fortunately, in recent years, considerable progress has been made. Here, we summarize the current understanding and discuss key areas for future study.