Alarming increase in light pollution worldwide, says study

Researchers say that artificial lighting at night is the major contributor to the rise in pollution levels globally.

New Delhi: An alarming increase in light pollution, both in amount and in brightness, is affecting places all over the world, including India, a study has found.

Researchers say that artificial lighting at night is contributing to the rise in pollution levels globally. Municipalities, enterprises, and households are switching to LED lights in order to save energy.

However, these savings might be lost if their neighbours install new or brighter lamps, researchers said.

Scientists fear that this "rebound effect" might partially or totally cancel out the savings of individual lighting retrofit projects, and make skies over cities considerably brighter.

An international study led by Christopher Kyba from the GFZ German Research Centre for Geoscience lends proof to this hypothesis.

According to the study published in the journal Science Advances, the artificially lit surface of Earth at night increased in radiance and extent over the past four years by two per cent annually.

The scientists used data from the first-ever calibrated satellite radiometer designed especially for night-lights (VIIRS for Visible/Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite).

The data also showed increase in the night-lights over India between 2012 and 2016.

The VIIRS Day-Night Band is mounted on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellite Suomi-NPP and has been circling our planet since October 2011. Their time series comprises the years 2012 to 2016.

Globally, the increase in light emission closely corresponds to the increase of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), with the fastest growth occurring in developing countries.

(With Agency inputs)