#Light #pollution and its Types

Light pollution 

Light pollution is a broad term that refers to multiple problems, all of which are caused by inefficient, unappealing, or (arguably) unnecessary use of artificial light. Specific categories of light pollution include light trespass, over-illumination, glare, light clutter, and skyglow. A single offending light source often falls into more than one of these categories.

Types

Light trespass is light being cast where it is not wanted or needed, such as light from a streetlight or a floodlight that illuminates a neighbor’s bedroom at night making it difficult to sleep and causing problems such as sleep deprivation.

Light trespass can be reduced by selecting light fixtures which limit the amount of light emitted more than 80° above the nadir. The IESNA definitions include full cutoff (0%), cutoff (10%), and semi-cutoff (20%). (These definitions also include limits on light emitted above 90° to reduce sky glow.)

Over-illumination Over-illumination is the excessive use of light. Studies shows that over 30% of all primary energy is consumed by commercial, industrial and residential sectors. Energy audits of existing buildings demonstrate that the lighting component of residential, commercial and industrial uses consumes about 20–40% of those land uses, variable with region and land use. (Residential use lighting consumes only 10–30% of the energy bill while commercial buildings' major use is lighting.Again energy audit data demonstrates that about 30–60% of energy consumed in lighting is unneeded or gratuitous. 

American cities emit 3–5 times more light to space per capita compared to German cities.

Glare can be thought of as objectionable brightness. It can be disabling or discomforting. There are several kinds of glare, the worst of which is disability glare, because it causes a loss of visibility from stray light being scattered within the eye. Discomfort glare is the sensation of annoyance or even pain induced by overly bright sources. Think of driving along a dark road when an oncoming car with bright headlights suddenly appears. The sudden bright light can be uncomfortable and make it difficult to see. Discomfort and even disability glare can also be caused by streetlights, parking lot lights, floodlights, signs, sports field lighting, and decorative and landscape lights.

Light clutter . The redundant lighting found in many urban centers results in a clutter of lights that contribute to sky glow, trespass, and glare while destroying the ambiance of our nighttime environment. Our eyes, when dark-adapted, have good natural capacity in lowlight situations. But when nightscapes are over-lit, eyes never have a chance to become dark-adapted, and areas adjacent to brightly lit areas become impenetrable, reducing safety. Clutter is particularly noticeable on roads where the street lights are badly designed, or where brightly lit advertising surrounds the roadways. Depending on the motives of the person or organization that installed the lights, their placement and design can even be intended to distract drivers, and can contribute to accidents.

Clutter may also present a hazard in the aviation environment if aviation safety lighting must compete for pilot attention with non-relevant lighting. For instance, runway lighting may be confused with an array of suburban commercial lighting and aircraft collision avoidance lights may be confused with ground lights

Sky glow occurs from both natural and human-made sources. The natural component of sky glow has five sources: sunlight reflected off the moon and earth, faint air glow in the upper atmosphere (a permanent, low-grade aurora), sunlight reflected off interplanetary dust (zodiacal light), starlight scattered in the atmosphere, and background light from faint, unresolved stars and nebulae (celestial objects or diffuse masses of interstellar dust and gas that appear as hazy smudges of light). Natural sky glow is well quantified. 

Electric lighting also increases night sky brightness and is the human-made source of sky glow. Light that is either emitted directly upward by luminaires or reflected from the ground is scattered by dust and gas molecules in the atmosphere, producing a luminous background. It has the effect of reducing one’s ability to view the stars. Sky glow is highly variable depending on immediate weather conditions, quantity of dust and gas in the atmosphere, amount of light directed skyward, and the direction from which it is viewed. In poor weather conditions, more particles are present in the atmosphere to scatter the upward-bound light, so sky glow becomes a very visible effect of wasted light and wasted energy.

Sky glow is of most concern to astronomers because it reduces their ability to view celestial objects. Sky glow increases the brightness of the dark areas of the sky, which reduces the contrast of stars or other celestial objects against the dark sky background.
Light pollution and Consequences
Light pollution and Consequences
Light pollution and its Effects