The new world atlas of artificial night sky brightness

TL;DR

This paper presents a comprehensive global atlas of artificial sky brightness, revealing widespread light pollution and its impact on visibility of the Milky Way, based on high-resolution satellite data and new measurements.

Contribution

It introduces a new high-resolution global atlas of artificial sky luminance using advanced satellite data and modeling, providing the first detailed worldwide quantification of light pollution.

Findings

Over 80% of the world population lives under light-polluted skies.

More than one-third of humanity cannot see the Milky Way.

Significant portions of land and populations in Europe and North America experience light pollution.

Abstract

Artificial lights raise night sky luminance, creating the most visible effect of light pollution-artificial skyglow. Despite the increasing interest among scientists in fields such as ecology, astronomy, health care, and land-use planning, light pollution lacks a current quantification of its magnitude on a global scale. To overcome this, we present the world atlas of artificial sky luminance, computed with our light pollution propagation software using new high-resolution satellite data and new precision sky brightness measurements. This atlas shows that more than 80% of the world and more than 99% of the U.S. and European populations live under light-polluted skies. The Milky Way is hidden from more than one-third of humanity, including 60% of Europeans and nearly 80% of North Americans. Moreover, 23% of the world's land surfaces between 75{\deg}N and 60{\deg}S, 88% of Europe, and almost half of the United States experience light-polluted nights.