<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>Excessive amounts of artificial light emitted into the lower atmosphere at night have already become an everyday feature of modern urban landscapes, and gradually also a phenomenon associated with areas located outside large human settlements. Urban islands of light have been the subject of targeted research conducted for several decades by scientists representing miscellaneous fields of science. In Toruń, regular research on the phenomenon of light smog has been carried out for several years at a number of sites located throughout the city. Recently, research has been started on the variability of the night sky brightness in a vertical gradient. To this end, repeatable measurements were made at specific altitudes at two locations in the city using a drone with an automatic light metre on board. The values of the night sky brightness thus obtained allowed us to determine its variability in the vertical gradient up to an altitude of 120 m, as well as to test the possibility of using drones in targeted studies of the light pollution phenomenon.</p>
</abstract>

Excessive amounts of artificial light emitted into the lower atmosphere at night have already become an everyday feature of modern urban landscapes, and gradually also a phenomenon associated with areas located outside large human settlements. Urban islands of light have been the subject of targeted research conducted for several decades by scientists representing miscellaneous fields of science. In Toruń, regular research on the phenomenon of light smog has been carried out for several years at a number of sites located throughout the city. Recently, research has been started on the variability of the night sky brightness in a vertical gradient. To this end, repeatable measurements were made at specific altitudes at two locations in the city using a drone with an automatic light metre on board. The values of the night sky brightness thus obtained allowed us to determine its variability in the vertical gradient up to an altitude of 120 m, as well as to test the possibility of using drones in targeted studies of the light pollution phenomenon.

Vertical Variability of Night Sky Brightness in Urbanised Areas

Department of Geomatics and Cartography, Faculty of Earth Sciences and Spatial Management

Quaestiones Geographicae

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

{"article-title":"Vertical Variability of Night Sky Brightness in Urbanised Areas"}

Excessive amounts of artificial light emitted into the lower atmosphere at night have already become an everyday feature of modern urban landscapes, and...

Parameter	Characteristic
weight	380 g
dimension	5,5 × 8,2 × 15,8 cm
standard of data transmission	LoRaWAN
frequency bands	868 MHz
operating time [3 000 mAh]	∼ 12 month
range in built-up areas	3–4 km
number of measurements during the day	36
frequency of measurements	15 min
operational time	21:00–06:00 CEST
measuring sensors	surface brightness of the sky, temperature, humidity
the angle of data collection	20°
tightness class	IP65

Vertical Variability of Night Sky Brightness in Urbanised Areas

Pubblicato online: 01 ott 2022

Pagine: 5 - 14

Ricevuto: 27 giu 2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14746/quageo-2023-0001

Parole chiave
light pollution, smartcity, UAV, urban area, vertical measurement

© 2023 Dominika Karpińska et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

Fig. 3

Fig. 4

Fig. 5

Fig. 6

Fig. 7

Selected technical parameters of the measuring device.

Vertical Variability of Night Sky Brightness in Urbanised Areas

Pubblicato online: 01 ott 2022

Pagine: 5 - 14

Ricevuto: 27 giu 2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14746/quageo-2023-0001

Parole chiavelight pollution, smartcity, UAV, urban area, vertical measurement

© 2023 Dominika Karpińska et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

Fig. 3

Fig. 4

Fig. 5

Fig. 6

Fig. 7

Selected technical parameters of the measuring device.

Parole chiave
light pollution, smartcity, UAV, urban area, vertical measurement