Pollution Increasing at a Rate of Two Percent Per Year
International Dark-Sky Association | 2017 Nov 22
[img3="World maps showing the rates of change of the lit area of the world (left) and the measured brightness of each country during 2012-2016. Warmer colors in each map correspond to higher rates of change. Credit: Kyba et al. / Science Advances"]http://www.darksky.org/wp-content/uploa ... oscale.png[/img3][hr][/hr]Five years of advanced satellite images show that there is more artificial light at night across the globe, and that light at night is getting brighter. The rate of growth is approximately two percent each year in both the amount of areas lit and the radiance of the light.
An international team of scientists on Wednesday reported the results of a landmark study of global light pollution and the rise of light-emitting diode (LED) outdoor lighting technology. The study, published today in the journal Science Advances, finds both light pollution and energy consumption by lighting steadily increasing over much of the planet. The findings also challenge the assumption that increases in the energy efficiency of outdoor lighting technologies necessarily lead to an overall decrease in global energy consumption. ...
The results reported today confirm suggestions in earlier research based on data obtained with U.S. Department of Defense meteorological satellite measurements going back to the 1970s. However, the better sensitivity of Suomi’s cameras to light on the night side of Earth and significantly improved ground resolution led to more robust conclusions about the changing illumination of the world at night. ...
Artificially lit surface of Earth at night increasing in radiance and extent - Christopher C. M. Kyba et al
- Science Advances 3(11):1701528 (22 Nov 2017) DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1701528