Evolution of the energy consumed by street lighting in Spain estimated with DMSP-OLS data

Abstract

We present the results of the analysis of satellite imagery to study light pollution in Spain. Both calibrated and non-calibrated DMSP-OLS images were used. We describe the method to scale the non-calibrated DMSP-OLS images which allows us to use differential photometry techniques in order to study the evolution of the light pollution. Population data and DMSP-OLS satellite calibrated images for the year 2006 were compared to test the reliability of official statistics in public lighting consumption. We found a relationship between the population and the energy consumption which is valid for several regions. Finally the true evolution of the electricity consumption for street lighting in Spain from 1992 to 2010 was derived, it have been doubled in the last 18 years in most of the provinces.

Accepted in JQSRT 26/11/2013 Light pollution special Issue

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Measuring night sky brightness: methods and challenges
• The nature of the diffuse light near cities detected in nighttime satellite imagery
• Colour remote sensing of the impact of artificial light at night (II): Calibration of DSLR-based images from the International Space Station
• Testing sky brightness models against radial dependency: a dense two dimensional survey around the city of Madrid, Spain
• The Temporal Analysis of Light Pollution in Turkey using VIIRS data
• Citizen Science to Assess Light Pollution with Mobile Phones
• Characterisation of night-time outdoor lighting in urban centres using cluster analysis of remotely sensed light emissions