Show me the light? Mapping artificial light sources

Abstract

Countless lights that illuminate our streets, houses and other infrastructures leak some of their light to the night sky. Mapping and monitoring these light sources and their emissions are important for proposing and controlling lighting regulations. To date, complete lighting inventories, including not only public but also commercial and private lighting, have only been mapped in a few known places. So it is generally unknown how much contribution commercial, private, and public lighting have to total light emissions. Most light emission reduction measures have been focused on street lighting, but perhaps we are missing the big picture when focusing only on these lighting type? To answer this question we recently launched a new project called “Nachtlicht-BüHNE” where citizen scientists will create an app for mapping outdoor lighting sources using a co-design process. This talk will give an overview of this project. We will also present an analysis of Globe at Night data, and aim to convince Symposium participants of the importance of taking part each year. In order to enhance participation in 2020, we propose a global campaign for observations in March, 2020.