Night Sky Brightness at Sites from DMSP-OLS Satellite Measurements

From: Joseph Lazio (jlazio_at_adams.patriot.net)
Date: 06/29/04 

Date: 29 Jun 2004 18:32:51 -0400

This paper appeared recently on astro-ph, and I thought that some in
this group might find it interesting:

Paper: astro-ph/0406610
Date: Mon, 28 Jun 2004 01:25:31 GMT (385kb)

Title: Night sky brightness at sites from DMSP-OLS satellite measurements
Authors: Pierantonio Cinzano (1,2), Cristopher D. Elvidge (3) ((1) Dipartimento
  di Astronomia, Padova, Italy, (2) Istituto di Scienza e Tecnologia
  dell'Inquinamento Luminoso (ISTIL), Italy, (3) NOAA National Geophysical Data
  Center, Boulder, USA)
Comments: 14 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS, 17 june 2004
\\
We apply the sky brightness modelling technique introduced and
developed by Roy Garstang to high-resolution DMSP-OLS satellite
measurements of upward artificial light flux and to GTOPO30 digital
elevation data in order to predict the brightness distribution of the
night sky at a given site in the primary astronomical photometric
bands for a range of atmospheric aerosol contents. This method, based
on global data and accounting for elevation, Earth curvature and
mountain screening, allows the evaluation of sky glow conditions over
the entire sky for any site in the World, to evaluate its evolution,
to disentangle the contribution of individual sources in the
surrounding territory, and to identify main contributing sources. Sky
brightness, naked eye stellar visibility and telescope limiting
magnitude are produced as 3-dimensional arrays whose axes are the
position on the sky and the atmospheric clarity. We compared our
results to available measurements.
\\ ( http://arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0406610 , 385kb) 

-- 
Lt. Lazio, HTML police   | e-mail: jlazio@patriot.net
No means no, stop rape.  | http://patriot.net/%7Ejlazio/
sci.astro FAQ at http://sciastro.astronomy.net/sci.astro.html

Relevant Pages

  • Night Sky Brightness at Sites from DMSP-OLS Satellite Measurements
    ... Night sky brightness at sites from DMSP-OLS satellite measurements ...
    (sci.astro.amateur)
  • Re: Sky Quality Meter: a review
    ... > instrument to measure the sky brightness, ... and stuff from lower elevation angles compared to a ... telescopic measurement of a small star-free region at the ...
    (sci.astro.amateur)
  • Re: reminder: Globe at Night
    ... The other night the next door neighbour saw I was looking up at the sky and ... Night Sky Protection Act), my main activity is working to build ... Astronomers were the first to sound the alarm ... If care is taken to broaden the message to more people instead of just ...
    (sci.astro.amateur)
  • Re: Lurker comes out to share a small observation story
    ... A nice story Jeff, and a great reminder of why we enjoy the wonders of the ... night sky. ... > similar sky conditions to the east from the city of Milwaukee. ...
    (sci.astro.amateur)
  • Re: OT Ever see a UFO?
    ... >Sitting her watching Easy Rider, ... >when it split in about 6 parts and shot out equally into the night sky. ... I was camping and I was watching the night sky. ...
    (rec.music.beatles)