light pollution

Satellite image of Northern Europe at night.

Earth at Night

Caitlin Dempsey

Nighttime lighting is when the effect of humans on the environment is especially pronounced.

Composite image of Europe at night, 2016. Credits: NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens, using Suomi NPP VIIRS data from Miguel Román, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Germany Plans to Curb Light Pollution to Save Insects

Katarina Samurović

In the latest bid to reverse the dramatic insect decline, Germany is planning on dimming its lights.

Map showing the location of Niue. Map: Equal Earth Wall Map, public domain.

Niue Designated the First Dark Sky Nation

Elizabeth Borneman

The Pacific island nation of Niue has made history as the first designated dark sky nation on Earth.

European Perch (Perca fluviatilis) from British fresh water fishes, 1879, public domain.

Urban Fish Get Less Sleep

Caitlin Dempsey

Researchers looked at the effect of different nighttime light levels on the production of melatonin in European perch.

A map showing night light pollution.

Interactive Map of How Nighttime Light Pollution Has Changed Around the World

Caitlin Dempsey

The Radiance Light Trends website offers an interactive map where users can see how night light pollution has changed between 1992 to the present.

Black Marble: Nighttime Lights Data from NASA

Mark Altaweel

NASA's Black Marble provides a suite of nighttime geospatial data acquired from Suomi satellite's Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite instrument.

Review | The Nocturnal City

Caitlin Dempsey

Robert Shaw's newly published book, The Nocturnal City, is an effort to delve into the city at night which is a “very different time-space from day.”

Nighttime Illumination Continues to Grow Worldwide

Caitlin Dempsey

A new study used remotely sensed data from an earth observation satellite to analyze the rate of increase in artificial night lights between 2012 and 2016.

Light pollution along the Eastern Seaboard in the United States. Image: NASA.

How Light Pollution Affects People and the Environment

Mark Altaweel

While much of the public is aware of a concept of light pollution, its ill effects and influences on society and nature are less clear to most people.

How Geospatial Technologies Are Being Used to Study Light Pollution

Mark Altaweel

Spatial technologies, including remote sensing and GIS, have been used to monitor light pollution and its associated degradation effects.

Astronauts onboard the International Space Station (ISS) captured this picture of light pollution emanating from the Italian city of Milan in 2015.

Changes in Light from Space

Elizabeth Borneman

Astronauts on the International Space Station have studied the light emissions coming from older lights and newer LED lights and have found that LED lights actually make light pollution worse.

Nasa image showing the Eastern Seaboard at night. One can see New York City, Philadelphia, the Washington Metropolitan Area all in the foreground, while Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Niagara and Toronto can be seen in the background.

A Case Study in Environmental GIS: Light Pollution Mapping

GIS Contributor

Geospatial consultant Marcus Hinds uses remote sensing and environmental GIS methodologies to study light pollution in the Greater Toronto Area in Canada.