Publication: Mapping the melatonin suppression, star light and induced photosynthesis indices with the LANcube
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2020-12
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Abstract
Increased exposure to artificial light at night can affect human health including disruption of melatonin production and circadian rhythms which can extend to increased risks of hormonal cancers and other serious diseases. In addition, multiple negative impacts on fauna and flora are well documented, and it is a matter of fact that artificial light at night is a nuisance for ground-based astronomy. These impacts are frequently linked to the colour of the light or more specifically to its spectral content. Artificial light at night is often mapped by using spaceborne sensors, but most of them are panchromatic and thus insensitive to the colour. In this paper, we suggest a method that allows high-resolution mapping of the artificial light at night by using ground-based measurements with the LANcube system. The newly developed device separates the light detected in four bands (Red, Green, Blue and Clear) and provides this information for six faces of a cube. We found relationships between the LANcube’s colour ratios and (1) the Melatonin Suppression Index, (2) the StarLight Index and (3) the Induced Photosynthesis Index. We show how such relationships combined with data acquisition from a LANcube positioned on the top of a car can be used to produce spectral indices maps of a whole city in a few hours.
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© 2020 The Author(s). M.A., A.F. and C.M. thank the Fonds de recherche du Québec–Nature et technologies (FRQNT) for financial support through the Research program for college researchers. J.R., M.A., A.F. and A.D. thank the Pôle régional en enseignement supérieur de l’Estrie (PRESE). We want to thank Thomas Goulet-Soucy for his contribution to the design of the prototype version of the LAN3 . We also want to thank Elsa Vigneau, Mathieu Fréchette and Thomas Goulet-Soucy for their help during the initial LAN3 testing and calibration experiments in Barcelona, Madrid, Lyon and Toulouse. Finally, we want to thank DH éclairage Inc. who built and graciously provided us the LAN3v1 systems used to map the city of Sherbrooke.