An Investigation of LED Street Lighting’s Impact on Sky Glow

Kinzey, Bruce R.; Perrin, Tess E.; Miller, Naomi; Kocifaj, Miroslav; Aubé, Martin; Lamphar, Héctor

doi:10.2172/1607664

Cited by 13 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…Although all LED lamps were assumed to emit only downwards, we have also introduced 5% uplight into the results presented in Figure 4 in order to simulate combined effect of fully shielded lights and incumbent luminaire distributions. The 5% uplight figure was chosen following the estimate of Kinzey et al [23] for "relatively poor drop-lens cobra head street lights." While F = 0% and low AOD is the condition most representative of the field skyglow measurements reported here, we varied both parameters.…”

Section: Results Of Model Runsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Skyglow changes over Tucson, Arizona, resulting from a municipal LED street lighting conversion

Barentine

Walker

Kocifaj

et al. 2018

Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer

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The transition from earlier lighting technologies to white light-emitting diodes (LEDs) is a significant change in the use of artificial light at night. LEDs emit considerably more short-wavelength light into the environment than earlier technologies on a per-lumen basis. Radiative transfer models predict increased skyglow over cities transitioning to LED unless the total lumen output of new lighting systems is reduced. The City of Tucson, Arizona (U.S.), recently converted its municipal street lighting system from a mixture of fully shielded high-and low-pressure sodium (HPS/LPS) luminaires to fully shielded 3000 K white LED luminaires. The lighting design intended to minimize increases to skyglow in order to protect the sites of nearby astronomical observatories without compromising public safety. This involved the migration of over 445 million fully shielded HPS/LPS lumens to roughly 142 million fully shielded 3000 K white LED lumens and an expected concomitant reduction in the amount of visual skyglow over Tucson. SkyGlow Simulator models predict skyglow decreases on the order of 10-20% depending on whether fully shielded or partly shielded lights are in use. We tested this prediction using visual night sky brightness estimates and luminance-calibrated, panchromatic all-sky imagery at 15 locations in and near the city. Data were obtained in 2014, before the LED conversion 1 arXiv:1802.03474v1 [astro-ph.IM] 9 Feb 2018 began, and in mid-2017 after approximately 95% of ∼18,000 luminaires was converted. Skyglow differed marginally, and in all cases with valid data changed by < ±20%. Over the same period, the city's upward-directed optical radiance detected from Earth orbit decreased by approximately 7%. While these results are not conclusive, they suggest that LED conversions paired with dimming can reduce skyglow over cities.

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Section: Results Of Model Runsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Skyglow changes over Tucson, Arizona, resulting from a municipal LED street lighting conversion

Barentine

Walker

Kocifaj

et al. 2018

Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer

Self Cite

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“…Similar concerns about the adverse effects of the rapid spread of full spectrum LED lighting are voiced by dark sky advocates (Bierman, 2012). The spectrum of light used will greatly affect the amount of scattering of light at different distances from a source (Kinzey et al, 2017). The extent of these effects depends in part on the spectral characteristics of the LEDs used, and many opportunities are available to evaluate the performance of the wide array of LED spectral configurations, such as investigating multiple spectral configurations of 2700 K LEDs to reduce attraction of flying insects (Longcore et al, 2015) or comparing LEDs of different color temperatures (Eisenbeis & Eick, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 88%

“…Such a switch can be catastrophic for the effects on other species, or it can be a benefit, depending on the spectrum, duration, direction, and intensity of the new lamps (Gaston et al, 2012;Longcore et al, 2015;Rodríguez, Dann, & Chiaradia, 2017a). The same applies to sky glow (Kinzey et al, 2017). Some ecologists have voiced generic concerns about LEDs in general, questioning whether they pose a risk across the board (Pawson and Bader, 2014;Stone, Jones, & Harris, 2012), and noting the unfortunate "rebound effect" in which more efficient lighting leads to deployment of even more light (Kyba et al, 2017;Kyba, Hänel, & Hölker, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rapid assessment of lamp spectrum to quantify ecological effects of light at night

et al. 2018

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For many decades, the spectral composition of lighting was determined by the type of lamp, which also influenced potential effects of outdoor lights on species and ecosystems. Light-emitting diode (LED) lamps have dramatically increased the range of spectral profiles of light that is economically viable for outdoor lighting. Because of the array of choices, it is necessary to develop methods to predict the effects of different spectral profiles without conducting field studies, especially because older lighting systems are being replaced rapidly. We describe an approach to predict responses of exemplar organisms and groups to lamps of different spectral output by calculating an index based on action spectra from behavioral or visual characteristics of organisms and lamp spectral irradiance. We calculate relative response indices for a range of lamp types and light sources and develop an index that identifies lamps that minimize predicted effects as measured by ecological, physiological, and astronomical indices. Using these assessment metrics, filtered yellow-green and amber LEDs are predicted to have lower effects on wildlife than high pressure sodium lamps, while blue-rich lighting (e.g., K ≥ 2200) would have greater effects. The approach can be updated with new information about behavioral or visual responses of organisms and used to test new lighting products based on spectrum. Together with control of intensity, direction, and duration, the approach can be used to predict and then minimize the adverse effects of lighting and can be tailored to individual species or taxonomic groups.

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“…This figure highlights potential disagreement between the metrics in the magnitude of impact that changing CCTs might have on circadian stimulus, depending on the location of the violet/blue peak in the source SPD. Given this potential effect, concerns have been raised regarding the impact of LED lighting on circadian rhythms, as stated in a recent USDOE fact sheet [39]. It suggested that chronic disruption of circadian rhythmicity by LED light sources has the potential to yield serious long-term health consequences, although there are no examples in any literature of such circadian disruption arising from the installation of LED public lighting [40].…”

Section: The Radiometric and Photometric Properties Of The Artificial...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Visual and melanopic performance of a tropical daylight-mimicking lighting: a case study in Thailand

Santimalai,

Tayjasanant

2023

IJECE

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This paper designed and developed a tropical daylight-mimicking lighting system based on photometric, radiometric and International Commission on Illumination (CIE) standard melanopic performances from natural lighting cycles in Thailand. Spectral power distribution (SPD) during daylight in summer and winter were recorded to create a dynamic artificial lighting system that best matches the natural daylight characteristics. Two set-ups light emitting diode (LED) (LED-A and LED-B) were screened, developed, validated and compared with different chromaticity layouts of the correlated color temperatures (CCTs) allocated on Planckian locus and later converted to x-y co-ordinates in a chromaticity diagram. Based on CCT and Duv deviations between two developed setups, LED-A could mimick circadian points on the chromaticity diagram better than LED-B did. CCT and Duv values of LED-A (dCCT=3.75% and dDuv=17.36%) can match closer to the daylight than those of LED-B (dCCT=5.0 % and dDuv=56.84%). For CIE-standard melanopic performances (melanopic efficacy of luminous radiation (mELR), melanopic equivalent daylight (D65) illuminance (mEDI) and melanopic daylight efficacy ratio (mDER)), LED-A is suitable to use indoor with averages of 1.16 W×lm-1, 236 lx and 0.84, respectively, while LED-B is good to use outdoor with averages of 1.53 W×lm-1, 266 lx and 1.06, respectively. The proposed design can be used as a guideline to establish a daylight-mimicking LED lighting system from actual measurement data.

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An Investigation of LED Street Lighting’s Impact on Sky Glow

Cited by 13 publications

References 3 publications

Skyglow changes over Tucson, Arizona, resulting from a municipal LED street lighting conversion

Skyglow changes over Tucson, Arizona, resulting from a municipal LED street lighting conversion

Rapid assessment of lamp spectrum to quantify ecological effects of light at night

Visual and melanopic performance of a tropical daylight-mimicking lighting: a case study in Thailand

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