Abstract
Light pollution is a novel environmental problem whose extent and severity are rapidly increasing. Among other concerns, it threatens global biodiversity, nocturnal animal migration, and the ...integrity of the ground-based astronomy research enterprise. The most familiar manifestation of light pollution is skyglow, the result of the interplay of outdoor artificial light at night (ALAN) and atmospheric scattering that obscures views of naturally dark night skies. Interventions to reduce night sky brightness (NSB) involving the adoption of modern lighting technologies are expected to yield the greatest positive environmental consequences, but other aspects of the problem have not been fully explored as bases for public policies aimed at reducing light pollution. Here we show that reducing air pollution, specifically aerosols, decreases NSB by tens of percent at relatively small distances from light sources. Cleaner city air lowers aerosol optical depth and darkens night skies, particularly in directions toward light sources, due to relatively short path lengths traversed by photons from source to observer. A field experiment demonstrating the expected changes when transitioning from conditions of elevated turbidity to cleaner air validated our hypothesis. Our results suggest new policy actions to augment and enhance existing light pollution reduction techniques targeting lighting technology and design.
ABSTRACT
In ground-based astronomy, the brightness of the night sky is the limiting factor that determines the efficacy of any particular telescope in terms of detecting faint objects. Proper ...measurement and monitoring of night sky brightness (NSB) is therefore key to protecting sites of astronomical observatories from light pollution and maximizing their scientific productivity. However, current data sources and modelling approaches exhibit practical shortcomings that significantly limit their utility. By considering the current situation in measuring light pollution, we identify opportunities for improvements. These include defaulting to spatially resolved sky brightness measurements, routinely incorporating spectral information and polarization, and collecting simultaneous meteorological data. Given the acute threat to astronomy posed by rapidly increasing NSB around the world, we argue that the time has come for the standardization of NSB measurement and monitoring methods and protocols.
The physiology and behavior of most life at or near the Earth’s surface has evolved over billions of years to be attuned with our planet’s natural light–dark cycle of day and night. However, over a ...relatively short time span, humans have disrupted this natural cycle of illumination with the introduction and now widespread proliferation of artificial light at night (ALAN). Growing research in a broad range of fields, such as ecology, the environment, human health, public safety, economy, and society, increasingly shows that ALAN is taking a profound toll on our world. Much of our current understanding of light pollution comes from datasets generated by remote sensing, primarily from two missions, the Operational Linescan System (OLS) instrument of the now-declassified Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) of the U.S. Department of Defense and its follow-on platform, the Day-Night Band (DNB) of the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument on board the Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership satellite. Although they have both proved invaluable for ALAN research, sensing of nighttime lights was not the primary design objective for either the DMSP-OLS or VIIRS-DNB instruments; thus, they have some critical limitations. Being broadband sensors, both the DMSP-OLS and VIIRS-DNB instruments suffer from a lack of spectral information. Additionally, their spatial resolutions are too low for many ALAN research applications, though the VIIRS-DNB instrument is much improved over the DMSP-OLS in this regard, as well as in terms of dynamic range and quantization. Further, the very late local time of VIIRS-DNB observations potentially misses the true picture of ALAN. We reviewed both current literature and guiding advice from ALAN experts, aggregated from a diverse range of disciplines and Science Goals, to derive recommendations for a mission to expand knowledge of ALAN in areas that are not adequately addressed with currently existing orbital missions. We propose a stand-alone mission focused on understanding light pollution and its effects on our planet. Here we review the science cases and the subsequent mission recommendations for NITESat (Nighttime Imaging of Terrestrial Environments Satellite), a dedicated ALAN observing mission.
Since the introduction of electric lighting over a century ago, and particularly in the decades following the Second World War, indications of artificial light on the nighttime Earth as seen from ...Earth orbit have increased at a rate exceeding that of world population growth during the same period. Modification of the natural photic environment at night is a clear and imminent consequence of the proliferation of anthropogenic light at night into outdoor spaces, and with this unprecedented change comes a host of known and suspected ecological consequences. In the past two decades, the conservation community has gradually come to view light pollution as a threat requiring the development of best management practices. Establishing those practices demands a means of quantifying the problem, identifying polluting sources, and monitoring the evolution of their impacts through time. The proliferation of solid-state lighting and the changes to source spectral power distribution it has brought relative to legacy lighting technologies add the complication of color to the overall situation. In this paper, I describe the challenge of quantifying light pollution threats to ecologically-sensitive sites in the context of efforts to conserve natural nighttime darkness, assess the current state of the art in detection and imaging technology as applied to this realm, review some recent innovations, and consider future prospects for imaging approaches to provide substantial support for darkness conservation initiatives around the world.
We present new constraints on the density profiles of dark matter (DM) halos in seven nearby dwarf galaxies from measurements of their integrated stellar light and gas kinematics. We present a data ...set of high-resolution integral-field spectroscopy on seven galaxies and measure the stellar and gas kinematics simultaneously. Using Jeans modeling on our full sample, we examine whether gas kinematics in general produce shallower density profiles than are derived from the stars. The mean and standard deviation of the logarithmic slope for the population are gamma = 0.67 + or - 0.10 when measured in the stars and gamma = 0.58 + or - 0.24 when measured in the gas. We also find that the halos are not under-concentrated at the radii of half their maximum velocities. Two popular mechanisms to explain cored DM halos are an exotic DM component or feedback models that strongly couple the energy of supernovae into repeatedly driving out gas and dynamically heating the DM halos.
•Radiative transfer modeling was used to predict skyglow changes resulting from an LED conversion.•Measurements of skyglow were made in epochs approximately bracketing the conversion effort.•Results ...of modeling and observations were compared against satellite “night lights”.•Some evidence supports the hypothesis that dimming LED lights reduced skyglow.•A clear need exists for further investigation of this phenomenon including constant monitoring.
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.
Numerical simulations show that box-shaped bulges of edge-on galaxies are not bulges: they are bars seen side-on. Therefore, the two components that are seen in edge-on Sb galaxies such as NGC 4565 ...are a disk and a bar. But face-on SBb galaxies always show a disk, a bar, and a (pseudo)bulge. Where is the (pseudo)bulge in NGC 4565? We use archival Hubble Space Telescope H-band images and Spitzer Space Telescope 3.6 {mu}m wavelength images, both calibrated to Two Micron All Sky Survey K{sub s} band, to penetrate the prominent dust lane in NGC 4565. We find a high surface brightness, central stellar component that is clearly distinct from the boxy bar and from the disk. Its brightness profile is a Sersic function with index n = 1.55 {+-} 0.07 along the major axis and 1.33 {+-} 0.12 along the minor axis. Therefore, it is a pseudobulge. It is much less luminous than the boxy bar, so the true pseudobulge-to-total luminosity ratio of the galaxy is PB/T = 0.06 {+-} 0.01, much less than the previously believed value of B/T = 0.4 for the 'boxy bulge'. We infer that published B/T luminosity ratios of edge-on galaxies with boxy bulges have been overestimated. Therefore, more galaxies than we thought contain little or no evidence of a merger-built classical bulge. From a formation point of view, NGC 4565 is a giant, pure-disk galaxy. This presents a challenge to our picture of galaxy formation by hierarchical clustering: it is difficult to grow galaxies as big as NGC 4565 without also making big classical bulges.
Since the invention of electric lighting in the nineteenth century, the steadily increasing use of artificial light at night in outdoor spaces has grown to threaten the integrity of dark night skies ...and nocturnal terrestrial spaces. The conservation community has gradually come to accept the need to protect natural nighttime darkness, which finds expression in dark sky parks and similar protected areas. As these places begin to reap tangible economic benefits in the form of sustainable ‘astrotourism,’ the movement to actively protect them gains strength. The International Dark-Sky Association designates Dark Sky Parks and Reserves under a comparative ranking scheme that assigns night sky quality tiers according to a combination of objective and subjective characteristics, but shortcomings in the consistency of these ratings exist that undermine the consistency and reputation of the designation program. Here we consider potential changes to the qualification regime to make the ratings system more robust for the benefit of future designations.
Galaxy formation and growth under the LambdaCDM paradigm is expected to proceed in a hierarchical, bottom-up fashion by which small galaxies grow into large galaxies; this mechanism leaves behind ...large "classical bulges" kinematically distinct from "pseudobulges" grown by internal, secular processes. We use archival data (Spitzer Space Telescope 3.6 mu m wavelength, Hubble Space Telescope H-band, Two Micron All Sky Survey Ks-band, and Sloan Digital Sky Survey gri-band) to measure composite minor- and major-axis surface brightness profiles of the almost-edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 5746. These light profiles span a large range of radii and surface brightnesses to reveal an inner, high surface brightness stellar component that is distinct from the well-known boxy bulge. It is well fitted by Sersic functions with indices n = 0.99+ or -0.08 and 1.17 + or - 0.24 along the minor and major axes, respectively. Since n < 2, we conclude that this innermost component is a secularly evolved pseudobulge that is distinct from the boxy pseudobulge. This inner pseudobulge makes up 0.136 + or - 0.019 of the total light of the galaxy. It is therefore considerably less luminous than the boxy structure, which is now understood to be a bar seen nearly end-on. The infrared imagery shows further evidence for secular evolution in the form of a bright inner ring of inner radius 9.1 kpc and width 1.6 kpc. NGC 5746 is therefore a giant, pure-disk SB(r)bc galaxy with no sign of a merger-built bulge. We do not understand how such galaxies form in a LambdaCDM universe.
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