Assessing the Influence of Urban Lights on Night Sky Brightness with a Smartphone

Abstract

The darkness of the sky is a critical parameter for assessing the suitability of an astronomical site. Among various sources of light pollution, urban lights pose the most significant threat to ground-based optical astronomical and planetary observations. Quantitatively assessing the impact of urban lights with varying scales and fluxes is indispensable for selecting an ideal optical observation site. In order to quantitatively assess the changes in Night Sky Brightness (NSB) relative to the distance from urban areas and to establish a foundation for safeguarding the light environment at the newly developed Lenghu astronomical site on the Tibetan Plateau, we employed both a Sky Quality Meter and a pre-calibrated smartphone. These instruments were used to measure the NSB in the vicinity of two cities, Da Qaidam and Delingha, which vary in size and radiant flux, on the Tibetan Plateau. The findings indicate that the NSB around both cities decreases significantly as the distance from the city center increases, although the rate of decrease varies between the two locations. This decline can be effectively modeled using an exponential decay function. Notably, the influence of city lights on NSB becomes negligible at distances exceeding 30 km from Da Qaidam, while for Delingha, this distance extends to 50 km due to its larger city size and higher total radiant flux. The methodologies and results presented in this paper offer valuable insights for the selection of astronomical observation sites and the development of light pollution management policies.