Mentor

Constance E. Walker

Document Type

Report

Publication Date

Summer 2013

First Page

1

Last Page

12

Abstract

Eight housed data logging Sky Quality Meters (SQMs) are being used to gather light pollution data in southern Arizona: one at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) in Tucson, four located at cardinal points at the outskirts of the city, and three situated on surrounding mountain tops. To examine specifically the effect of artificial lights, the data are reduced to exclude four natural contributors to lighting the night sky, namely, the sun, the moon, and the Milky Way. Faulty data (i.e., when certain parameters were met) were also excluded. Data were subsequently analyzed by a recently developed night sky brightness model (Duriscoe (2013)). During the monsoon season in southern Arizona, the SQMs were removed from the field to be tested for sensitivity to a range of wavelengths and temperatures. Future work will include further validation of the accuracy and precision of these devices are assessed by comparing to the Suomi Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) as well as the Globe at Night (GaN) data.

Download

Included in

Physics Commons

Share

COinS