Have you ever seen a real dark sky? So dark, the whole Milky Way is visible above you? Yeah, me neither! The issue of light pollution is a growing concern as we move towards a predominantly technological society and particularly, outdoor lighting fixtures are taking a huge toll on the night sky. While outdoor lighting provides comfort to those of us scared of the dark, the large, unnecessarily bright electronic billboards and fancy sports arena spotlights into the sky quite literally benefit no one. But there is not enough concern nor research done on light pollution to create universal regulations on the growing use of excessive lighting. The lack of regulations is due to a limit on the ways to assess the huge variety of light fixtures we use in our night-to-night routines. In May of 2020, research engineers Constantinos A. Bouroussis & Frangiskos V. Topalis started working on a paper that proposed a new method of the assessment of lighting fixtures in a, fittingly, technological fashion. The purpose was to address the issue of the lack of regulations by providing a better tool to analyze the lighting fixtures: a drone-gonio-photometer or in short, DGPM.

Currently, the loose standards on regulating lighting fixtures are just being observed and measured by gathering the horizontal and vertical luminance measurements from the ground. However, with the use of the DGPM, our scope of assessment is expanded past the 2D threshold into a holistic 3D view starting from the upwards point of view instead. Remember how crazy we were about 3D movies coming out? Well, this is like finally getting a seat for a light fixture film that comes out at you instead of just looking at it on paper! Light fixture movies are probably not too intriguing but if getting your Amazon packages by air is something you've been really excited about, I think presenting any new drone usage information is something we can all get behind. If goniophotometers begin to be in use for the assessment of outdoor lighting fixtures, according to LEDs Magazine, "the mechanical setup enables not only overall power characterization of the device under test but the angular characteristics as well."[1]

Knowing a wider range of dimensions then allows us to be more intentional in the way future light fixtures are created and allow us to alter the harmful light fixtures currently in place. Goniophotometers "can be placed anywhere in the 3D space while the sample under measurement can be a physical structure of any size & kind… open[ing up] discussion for future relevant standards on outdoor lighting"[2] as stated by Bouroussis & Topalis. Presenting this new category of instrumentation is a huge step forward in standardizing methods to urge a common effort in the winnable fight against light pollution. As of today, only “18 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico have laws in place to reduce light pollution.”[3] We have 50 states in this country. It's 2021 and our time is ticking in our race against overall pollution takeover and then extinction! It is truly necessary that we start combating environmental threats little by little while we still can.

The world's collective growing knowledge is really remarkable, and it's crazy to see how far we've come since Galileo's time. Even cooler than that, we can gaze at the exact same stars in the exact same presentation as Galileo! However, as time passes on, our views have been increasingly inhibited by light pollution. With the 3D scope of the drone gonio-photometer though, we could search for those stars yet again and salvage as much as we can from the dark skies as well as benefit a lot of the world's natural ecosystems as well.

[1] "UV LED sources demand calibration to precise measurements for safe operation"

[2] "Assessment of outdoor lighting installations and their impact on light pollution using unmanned aircraft systems - The concept of the drone-gonio-photometer" 1-2.

[3] "States Shut Out Light Pollution"

References

Bouroussis, Constantinos A., and Frangiskos V. Topalis. “Assessment of Outdoor Lighting Installations and Their Impact on Light Pollution Using Unmanned
Aircraft Systems - the Concept of the Drone-Gonio-Photometer.” NASA/ADS, Elsevier, June 2020,
ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2020JQSRT.25307155B/abstract.

Eder, Bastian, and Denan KONJHODŽIĆ. “UV LED Sources Demand Calibration to Precise Measurements for Safe Operation.” LEDs Magazine, 8 Sept. 2020, www.ledsmagazine.com/manufacturing-servicestesting/article/14182523/uv-led-sources-demand-calibration-to-precise-measurements-forsafe-operation-magazine.

Schultz, Jennifer. “States Shut Out Light Pollution.” States Shut out Light Pollution, National Conference of State Legislature, 23 May 2016,
www.ncsl.org/research/environment-and-natural-resources/states-shut-out-light-pollution.aspx.