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2015 2019 SQM Output Report

Regular sky brightness monitoring has been conducted from Tanrallt, Mynydd Parys since April 2015 using a Unihedron sky quality meter. The results from 2015 to 2019 show a range in sky brightness from 20.74 to 21.51 magnitudes per square arcsecond, with gaps in data due to permanent twilight in summer months. While sky brightness has decreased, this could be an artifact of the meter being less sensitive to the strong blue wavelengths of new LED street lights, rather than an actual decrease in light pollution.

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Ziyou Nushen
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40 views2 pages

2015 2019 SQM Output Report

Regular sky brightness monitoring has been conducted from Tanrallt, Mynydd Parys since April 2015 using a Unihedron sky quality meter. The results from 2015 to 2019 show a range in sky brightness from 20.74 to 21.51 magnitudes per square arcsecond, with gaps in data due to permanent twilight in summer months. While sky brightness has decreased, this could be an artifact of the meter being less sensitive to the strong blue wavelengths of new LED street lights, rather than an actual decrease in light pollution.

Uploaded by

Ziyou Nushen
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Spring 2019 Update

Fixed site light pollution monitoring


Mynydd Parys, Anglesey.
John Rowlands.

Regular monitoring of sky brightness using a Unihedron sky quality meter (SQM), serial
number 8606, has been conducted from Tanrallt, Mynydd Parys since April 2015.

The results for 2015 - 2019 show a range in sky brightness, principally a product of varying
air pollution with changing wind sources, of ~20.74 - 21.51 MPSAS. Regular, extended
gaps in the data result from the seasonal nature of the sampling, owing to permanent
twilight being present in the late May to early September period, rendering meaningful sky
brightness measurements impossible. All data was acquired under true darkness, absent of
any moonlight or twilight.

Superficially, the decrease in sky brightness could be considered an indicator of success


from the mass-retrofitting of SON and SOX street lights with LED units, which are now
almost universally full cut-off in nature (no light emitted above the horizontal).

However, as highlighted at page 12 in my 2015, Anglesey-wide survey report, the SQM’s


sensor is of reduced normalised sensitivity of ~0.65 at blue wavelengths. Because LED
lights have a strong blue component around 450nm, there is the very real possibility that the
moderate decrease in sky brightness is not real, but a product of the measuring instrument
now being less suitable to measuring an increasingly blue-white light pollution
characteristic.

This important matter is now being brought to the attention of the SQM manufacturer and
the International Dark Sky Association. The potential for misleading output from existing
SQMs as a result of the transition from SON/SOX to LED should be noted by all those
concerned with managing light pollution.

Figure 1. A typical, generic LED street light spectrum, showing strong blue emission.

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