Falchi Fabio, Bará Salvador
Dept. de Física Aplicada, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, 15782 Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain.
Istituto di Scienza e Tecnologia dell'Inquinamento Luminoso (Light Pollution Science and Technology Institute), 36016 Thiene, Italy.
R Soc Open Sci. 2020 Dec 16;7(12):201501. doi: 10.1098/rsos.201501. eCollection 2020 Dec.
The persistent increase of artificial light emissions is causing a progressive brightening of the night sky in most regions of the world. This process is a threat for the long-term sustainability of the scientific and educational activity of ground-based astronomical observatories operating in the optical range. Huge investments in building, scientific and technical workforce, equipment and maintenance can be at risk if the increasing light pollution levels hinder the capability of carrying out the top-level scientific observations for which these key scientific infrastructures were built. Light pollution has other negative consequences, as e.g. biodiversity endangering and the loss of the starry sky for recreational, touristic and preservation of cultural heritage. The traditional light pollution mitigation approach is based on imposing conditions on the photometry of individual sources, but the aggregated effects of all sources in the territory surrounding the observatories are seldom addressed in the regulations. We propose that this approach shall be complemented with a top-down, ambient artificial skyglow immission limits strategy, whereby clear limits are established to the admissible deterioration of the night sky above the observatories. We describe the general form of the indicators that can be employed to this end, and develop linear models relating their values to the artificial emissions across the territory. This approach can be easily applied to other protection needs, like e.g. to protect nocturnal ecosystems, and it is expected to be useful for making informed decisions on public lighting, in the context of wider spatial planning projects.
人造光排放的持续增加正在导致世界上大多数地区的夜空逐渐变亮。这一过程对在光学波段运行的地面天文台的科学和教育活动的长期可持续性构成威胁。如果不断增加的光污染水平阻碍了进行这些关键科学基础设施所建的顶级科学观测的能力，那么在建筑、科技劳动力、设备和维护方面的巨额投资可能会面临风险。光污染还有其他负面后果，例如危及生物多样性以及失去用于娱乐、旅游和文化遗产保护的星空。传统的减轻光污染方法基于对单个光源的光度学施加条件，但天文台周围区域所有光源的综合影响在法规中很少得到解决。我们建议这种方法应辅以自上而下的、环境人造天空辉光排放限值策略，据此对天文台上方夜空允许的恶化程度设定明确的限值。我们描述了可为此目的采用的指标的一般形式，并开发了将其值与整个区域的人为排放相关联的线性模型。这种方法可以很容易地应用于其他保护需求，例如保护夜间生态系统，并且预计在更广泛的空间规划项目背景下，对于就公共照明做出明智决策会很有用。
