The new world atlas of artificial night sky brightness

• Published in: Science advances Vol. 2; no. 6; p. e1600377
• Main Authors: Falchi, Fabio, Cinzano, Pierantonio, Duriscoe, Dan, Kyba, Christopher C M, Elvidge, Christopher D, Baugh, Kimberly, Portnov, Boris A, Rybnikova, Nataliya A, Furgoni, Riccardo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Association for the Advancement of Science 01.06.2016
• Subjects: Africa; Americas; Asia; Conservation of Natural Resources; Environmental Pollution; Environmental Protection; Europe; Lighting; Maps as Topic; Models, Statistical; SciAdv r-articles; light pollution; astronomy; environmental protection
• ISSN: 2375-2548; 2375-2548
• DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1600377

Artificial lights raise night sky luminance, creating the most visible effect of light pollution-artificial skyglow. Despite the increasing interest among scientists in fields such as ecology, astronomy, health care, and land-use planning, light pollution lacks a current quantification of its magnitude on a global scale. To overcome this, we present the world atlas of artificial sky luminance, computed with our light pollution propagation software using new high-resolution satellite data and new precision sky brightness measurements. This atlas shows that more than 80% of the world and more than 99% of the U.S. and European populations live under light-polluted skies. The Milky Way is hidden from more than one-third of humanity, including 60% of Europeans and nearly 80% of North Americans. Moreover, 23% of the world's land surfaces between 75°N and 60°S, 88% of Europe, and almost half of the United States experience light-polluted nights.