Satellite measurements of artificial light at night: aerosol effects

Abstract

ABSTRACT The study of artificial light at night (ALAN) by satellite is very important for the analysis of new astronomical sites and for the long-term temporal evolution observation of the emission from the ground. The analysis of satellite data presents many advantages but also some critical points because of fluctuations in measurements. The main result of this paper is the discovery of a correlation between these fluctuations and the aerosol concentration combined with cloud cover and lunar cycles. In this work, we also present a mathematical empirical model for the light pollution propagation study in relation to the aerosol concentration detected by satellite. We apply this model to the astronomical site of Asiago (Ekar Observatory) providing a possible explanation for the temporal ALAN fluctuations detected by satellite. Finally, we validate the results with the ground collected data.