The nature of the diffuse light near cities detected in nighttime satellite imagery

Difuse glow has been observed around brightly lit cities in nighttime satellite imagery since at least the frst publication of large scale maps in the late 1990s. In the literature, this has often been assumed to be an error related to the sensor, and referred to as “blooming”, presumably in relatio...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Sánchez De Miguel, Alejandro, Kyba, Christopher C. M., Zamorano Calvo, Jaime, Gallego Maestro, Jesús, Gaston, Kevin J.
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2020
País:España
Institución:Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM)
Repositorio:Docta Complutense
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:docta.ucm.es:20.500.14352/6477
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/6477
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:52
Sky brightness
City
Dynamics
Skyglow
Color
Atlas
Black
Map
Astrofísica
Astronomía (Física)
Descripción
Sumario:Difuse glow has been observed around brightly lit cities in nighttime satellite imagery since at least the frst publication of large scale maps in the late 1990s. In the literature, this has often been assumed to be an error related to the sensor, and referred to as “blooming”, presumably in relation to the efect that can occur when using a CCD to photograph a bright light source. Here we show that the efect seen on the DMSP/OLS, SNPP/VIIRS-DNB and ISS is not only instrumental, but in fact represents a real detection of light scattered by the atmosphere. Data from the Universidad Complutense Madrid sky brightness survey are compared to nighttime imagery from multiple sensors with difering spatial resolutions, and found to be strongly correlated. These results suggest that it should be possible for a future space-based imaging radiometer to monitor changes in the difuse artifcial skyglow of cities.