Open AccessLight Pollution Mapping from a Stratospheric High-Altitude Balloon Platform
Author(s) -
Ken Walczak,
G. Gyuk,
Javier Espinosa García,
Cynthia Tarr
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
international journal of sustainable lighting
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2586-1247
DOI - 10.26607/ijsl.v23i1.106
Subject(s) - remote sensing , altitude (triangle) , environmental science , light pollution , balloon , low altitude , meteorology , rgb color model , computer science , geology , geography , computer vision , physics , astronomy , geometry , mathematics , cardiology , medicine
The NITELite (Night Imaging of Terrestrial Environments Lite) system is a method of collecting regional-scale light emissions data from a latex high-altitude balloon (LHAB) platform. An LHAB can reach altitudes of 25-30km from where the nighttime imaging is performed. LHAB missions are relatively low cost (<$2000US/flight) and easy to repeat. A NITELite mission collects data with high resolution (<10m/px), color information (RGB) over a region of thousands of square kilometers. This system provides a new source of data for remote sensing of artificial light at night (ALAN) research, filling the data gap between aerial and satellite observations. Nighttime LHAB-based imaging can provide data to support fields of ALAN research such as observation of real-time variability, monitoring effects of seasonal changes and events of interest, and measuring angular dependence of ALAN sources. NITELite includes an imaging system, an inertial and positional recording on-board-computer, and an altitude control system. Preliminary results demonstrate the potential of this method for future ALAN research.