Light Pollution Measurement and Source Identification Premana W. Premadi (1,2), Vita I. Khikmah (1), Muhammad Yusuf (2), Dhani Herdiwijaya (1), and Sausan K. Haida
1. Astronomy Study Program, FMIPA, Institut Teknologi Bandung
2. Bosscha Observatory, FMIPA, Institut Teknologi Bandung
Abstract
Despite the claim that light pollution is the easiest to control, it is noticeably worsening worldwide as human population increases. The failure arises from the complication in identifying the main source of the light pollution and therefore in constructing an effective regulation on artificial lighting. We report a preliminary result of our study that aims at a light pollution profile over the years of each region that would guide the construction of a regulation that would systematically prevent light pollution.
We conduct two independent studies to identify the various possible source of light pollution. The first one uses demographic data of the greater Bandung area and discovers that residential lights contribute much less than lights from business area, commercial attributes, and streetlights.
The second study uses satellite data before, during, and after the Covid-19 epidemic lockdown period over Indonesia. We find that large cities show significant reduction in light pollution as many people worked from home, whereas rural areas show a slight increase or not at all. This result confirms that residential area contributes little to the worsening of light pollution, and that the primary source is pointed at human activities. To be precise: where and how human uses artificial light: commercial and industrial area, high rise offices, and ground transportation (automobiles and streetlight).
A follow up study that combines satellite data and on-site ground data using Sky Quality Meter (SQM) is underway with the objective of identifying specific lighting particularly polluting astronomy sky. The correlation between the two types of data could later be used to have better guess of ground data when it is not available.
