People now see fewer and fewer stars in the night sky, which researchers attribute to the increased artificial light emissions from the Earth.
In a new study published in Journal science, the researchers said that sky brightness increased of 7-10 percent per year. Christopher Kyba of the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences and the Ruhr-Universität Bochum led the study with colleagues from the GFZ and the US National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab. They analysed more than 50,000 naked-eye observations by citizen scientists around the world from 2011 to 2022 as part of the “Globe at Night” Citizen Science Project.
LIGHT POLLUTION
The researchers say that the sky continues to glow with an artificial twilight long after sunset over a large part of the Earth’s surface. This emission called “skyglow” is a form of light pollution that has serious effects on the environment and should therefore be the focus of research, as Constance Walker, co-author of the study and head of the Globe at Night project of NSF’s NOIRLab since its inception, emphasizes. After all, many behaviours and physiological processes of living creatures are determined by daily and seasonal cycles – and thus influenced by light. “Skyglow affects both diurnal and nocturnal animals and also destroys an important part of our cultural heritage,” says Walker. The appearance of the night sky is changing, with negative effects on stargazing and astronomy.
NEED FOR SUITABLE MEASUREMENT METHODS
The change in skyglow over time has not previously been measured globally. While it could in principle be measured by satellites, the only current sensors that monitor the entire Earth do not have sufficient accuracy or sensitivity.
A promising approach is therefore to use the observational power of people using the human eye as a sensor, and in doing so – within the framework of Citizen Science experiments – to rely on the power of the crowd.
THE FINDINGS
“The rate at which stars are becoming invisible to people in urban environments is dramatic,” sums up Christopher Kyba, lead author of the study. The researchers found that the change in the number of visible stars can be explained by increases in night sky brightness. In Europe, they found a 6.5 per cent increase in brightness per year matched the data; in North America, it’s 10.4 per cent.
Kyba says the consequences for seeing stars in a place with a 9.6 per cent per year increase, which was the average over all locations worldwide. “If the development were to continue at that rate, a child born in a place where 250 stars are visible will only be able to see 100 stars there on his 18th birthday.”
Based on the slower growth in upward emissions seen in satellite data, the researchers were surprised by the speed of this development in skyglow. In fact, for the locations of the observers, the artificial brightness measured by satellite had slightly decreased (by 0.3 percent per year in Europe, by 0.8 percent in North America).
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MEASUREMENTS FROM EARTH AND FROM SPACE
Christopher Kyba believes that the difference between human observation and satellite measurements is probably due to changes in lighting practices: “Satellites are most sensitive to light that is directed upwards towards the sky. But it is horizontally emitted light that accounts for most of the skyglow,” Kyba explains. “So, if advertisements and facade lighting become more frequent, bigger or brighter, they could have a big impact on skyglow without making much of a difference on satellite imagery.”
Another factor the authors cite is the widespread switch from orange sodium vapor lamps to white LEDs, which emit much more blue light. “Our eyes are more sensitive to blue light at night, and blue light is more likely to be scattered in the atmosphere, so contributes more to skyglow,” Kyba says. “But the only satellites that can image the whole Earth at night are not sensitive in the wavelength range of blue light.”
LIGHTING POLICY AND CITIZEN SCIENCE
The researchers draw two main conclusions from their findings: On the one hand, they show that current lighting policies, such as the use of LEDs, have not yet brought about any improvement, at least on a continental level, despite growing awareness of light pollution.
“And on the other hand, we were able to demonstrate that the Citizen Science data represent an important supplement to the previous measurement methods,” Kyba emphasizes.
Constance Walker adds, “If we had broader participation, we could identify trends for other continents, and possibly even for individual states and cities. The project is ongoing, so feel free to take a look tonight and let us know what you see!
