Long-Time Trends in Night Sky Brightness and Ageing of SQM Radiometers

Fiorentin, P.; Binotto, R; Cavazzani, Stefano; Bertolo, Andrea; Ortolani, S.; Saviane, I.

doi:10.3390/rs14225787

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…The potential for artificial illumination to interfere with light trap efficacy, however, while repeatedly suggested (Frank 2006;Eisenbeis 2006;McDermott and Mullens 2018;Didham et al 2020;Grenis et al 2023; see also Verheijen 1958) has yet to be conclusively tested (but see Conrad et al 2006). Artificial light at night (ALAN) is a widespread environmental pollutant in both urban and rural habitats (Guetté et al 2018;Cox et al 2022;Fiorentin et al 2022), one which has grown dramatically in intensity and extent over the past several decades (Sánchez de Miguel et al, 2021;Kyba et al 2023). An increase in anthropogenic light pollution could systematically reduce the efficacy of light traps over time in one or more of the following ways.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Moths are less attracted to light traps than they used to be

Battles,

Burkness,

Crossley

et al. 2024

J Insect Conserv

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As evidence of global insect declines continues to mount, insect conservationists are becoming increasingly interested in modeling the demographic history of at-risk species from long-term survey data. However, certain entomological survey methods may be susceptible to temporal biases that will complicate these efforts. Entomological light traps, in particular, may catch fewer insects today than they once did due solely to increases in anthropogenic light pollution. Here we investigate this possibility by comparing the demographic histories of corn earworm moths (Helicoverpa zea) estimated from pairs of blacklight and pheromone traps monitored at the same farms. We find a stark decline in blacklight trap efficacy over 25 years of monitoring in Delaware, USA, mirrored over 10 years of monitoring in New Jersey, USA. While the precise causes of this decline remain a subject for discussion, the practical consequences are clear: insect conservationists cannot fully rely on long-term trends from entomological light traps.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Moths are less attracted to light traps than they used to be

Battles,

Burkness,

Crossley

et al. 2024

J Insect Conserv

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“…Furthermore, it has also been proven that variations in the atmosphere cause changes in the instruments' outputs [17,18]. These factors affect the results of NSB measurements; as such, they have been highlighted, and possible compensations were proposed in [19,20].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Laboratory Characterisation of a Commercial RGB CMOS Camera for Measuring Night Sky Brightness

Fiorentin,

Bertolo,

Cavazzani

et al. 2023

Remote Sensing

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The use of RGB cameras in photometric applications has grown over the last few decades in many fields such as industrial applications, light engineering and the analysis of the quality of the night sky. In this last field, they are often used in conjunction with a Sky Quality Meter (SQM), an instrument used for the measurement of night sky brightness (NSB), mainly when there is a significant amount of artificial light at night (ALAN). The performances of these two instruments are compared here. A simple source composed of nine narrowband LEDs in an integrating sphere was used to excite the two instruments and therefore measure the spectral responsivity of the SQM and of the three channels of the camera. The estimated uncertainties regarding spectral responsivity were less than 10%. A synthetic instrument approximating the SQM’s responsivity can be created using a combination of the R, G and B channels. The outputs of the two instruments were compared by measuring the spectral radiance of the night sky. An evaluation of the spectral mismatch between the two instruments completed the analysis of their spectral sensitivity. Finally, the measurements of real SQMs in four sites experiencing different levels of light pollution were compared with the values obtained by processing the recorded RGB images. Overall, the analysis shows that the two instruments have significantly different levels of spectral responsivity, and the alignment of their outputs requires the use of a correction which depends on the spectral distribution of the light coming from the sky. A synthetic SQM will always underestimate real SQM measures; an average correction factor was evaluated considering nine sky spectra under low and medium levels of light pollution; this was determined to be 1.11 and, on average, compensated for the gap. A linear correction was also supposed based on the correlation between the NSB levels measured by the two instruments; the mean squared error after the correction was 0.03 mag arcsec−2.

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