Kyba and his colleagues recommend avoiding glaring lamps whenever possible — choosing amber over so-called white LEDs — and using more efficient ways to illuminate places like parking lots or city streets. For example, dim, closely spaced lights tend to provide better visibility than bright lights that are more spread out.
The International Dark-Sky Association, based in Tucson, Ariz.,
has been highlighting the hazards of artificial night light for decades.
“We hope that the results further sound the alarm about the many unintended consequences of the unchecked use of artificial light at night,” Director J. Scott Feierabend said in a statement.
An instrument on the 2011-launched U.S. weather satellite, Suomi, provided the observations for this study. A second such instrument — known as the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite, or VIIRS — was launched on a new satellite Saturday by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This latest VIIRS will join the continuing night light study.