Measurement and Determination of Light Pollution: Case Study of Malatya City

Abstract

In this study, measurements of light pollution in and around Malatya city center were carried out by means of parcelization and mapping method with SQM (Sky quality meter) device. Measurements were carried out in the east, west, north and south directions at 5$^\circ$ intervals between the zenith and horizon in 7 regions in order to determine the effect of angle dependence in 84 points at the zenith references. Measurements which are taken in the lowest (bright) and highest (dark) regions measured are 16.53 mag arcsec$^{-2}$ and 20.68 mag arcsec$^{-2}$, respectively (Puschnig et~al.). Accepting the atmosphere permeability as 73%, the total amount of light lost (escaping into space and scattered back from the atmosphere) was calculated as $\sim3.44\times 10^7$ lm. The angle dependence effect participated in the calculations and the luminous flux emitted towards the upper half space originating from the unnecessary use of artificial light was calculated as $4~540~973$ lm. This value was calculated as 0.56 Mlm h (megalumen-hour) per year. In the city, street lighting, billboards, lighting on the exteriors of the buildings are considered to be active for approximately 12 hours a day and the amount spent was calculated as 441.720 kWh per month. This calculated value corresponds to 26.99% of the approximate monthly electricity amount (1 636 064.2 kWh per month) causing light pollution.

Keywords

• light pollution
• SQM (Sky quality meter )
• Calculation of wasted energy amount

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