Bremen 2017 – scientific programme

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UP: Fachverband Umweltphysik

UP 16: Andere Themen

UP 16.2: Talk

Thursday, March 16, 2017, 17:00–17:15, GW2 B3009

Angular distribution of artificial light at night in Europe observed by VIIRS–DNB — •Kai Pong Tong, Georg Heygster, and Justus Notholt — Institut für Umweltphysik, Universität Bremen, Bremen, Germany

Measuring angular distribution of upwelling artificial light is important in assessing the ecological impact because various creatures are negatively affected by particular patterns of artificial skyglow. We use the night time radiance data for clear nights without twilight and moonlight from the VIIRS–DNB sensor on board the satellite Suomi NPP to characterize the angular distributions of upwelling artificial light for Europe based on the data of the whole year 2015. We find that for most of the 74 major cities and metropolitan areas, the emissions are higher near the horizon. The mean numbers of overflights, which varied between 1 and 19, means that there are on average less than two overflights per month, potentially affecting the robustness of the analysis. Future analysis may consider using moonlight models to compensate for the retrieval of moonlit scenes in order to improve the statistics.