The disruption to natural light regimes caused by outdoor artificial nighttime lighting has
significant impacts on human health and the natural world. Artificial light at night takes two forms,
light emissions and skyglow (caused by the scattering of light by water, dust and gas molecules in
the atmosphere). Key to determining ...
The disruption to natural light regimes caused by outdoor artificial nighttime lighting has
significant impacts on human health and the natural world. Artificial light at night takes two forms,
light emissions and skyglow (caused by the scattering of light by water, dust and gas molecules in
the atmosphere). Key to determining where the biological impacts from each form are likely to be
experienced is understanding their spatial occurrence and how this varies with other landscape
factors. To examine this, we used data from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS)
day/night band and the World Atlas of Artificial Night Sky Brightness to determine covariation in
(a) light emissions, and (b) skyglow, with human population density, landcover, protected areas
and roads in Britain. We demonstrate that although artificial light at night increases with human
density, the amount of light per person decreases with increasing urbanization (with per capita
median direct emissions three times greater in rural than urban populations, and per capita median
skyglow eleven times greater). There was significant variation in artificial light at night within
different landcover types, emphasizing that light pollution is not a solely urban issue. Further, half
of English National parks have higher levels of skyglow than light emissions indicating their failure
to buffer biodiversity from pressures that artificial lighting poses. The higher per capita emissions
in rural than urban areas provide different challenges and opportunities to mitigating the negative
human health and environmental impacts of light pollution.