On the Posch ratio for irradiance in coastal waters and the high seas

TL;DR

This paper explores the Posch ratio as a tool for estimating sea surface irradiance related to light pollution, providing a model applicable to coastal waters and high seas, with an example in the Western Mediterranean region.

Contribution

It generalizes the Posch ratio for various radiance indicators and demonstrates its application to marine environments affected by artificial light pollution.

Findings

The Posch ratio varies smoothly with distance from shoreline in open waters.

The model can estimate irradiance from zenith sky brightness measurements.

Application example provided for waters around the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa.

Abstract

The horizontal irradiance at the sea surface is an informative light pollution indicator to study Artificial Light at Night (ALAN) effects on marine biodiversity (e.g.: zooplankton diel vertical migration). The Posch ratio (PR) for the horizontal irradiance (that is, the ratio of the horizontal irradiance to the zenith radiance) is a useful tool for estimating the irradiance from easily available measurements of the zenith night sky brightness. The PR definition has already been generalized for any pair of linear radiance indicators in any pair of arbitrarily chosen photometric bands, and can also be applied to estimate e.g. the average sky radiance or the radiance at some elevation above the horizon as a function of the radiance in any other direction of the sky. The PR for a single light source depends on the distance from the source, its angular and spectral emission pattern, and the state of the atmosphere. The PR for any set of sources is a linear combination of the individual PRs that each one would produce separately, with weights that can be easily derived from the relative contribution of each source to the zenith radiance. Whereas in populated lands the ALAN PR varies relatively fast from one location to another, due to the particular spatial distribution of lights, in coastal waters and the high seas the light pollution PR is a smooth function of the distance to the shoreline, due to the progressive lack of neighboring sources and the absence of obstacles. In this work we present the fundamental equations of the model and an example of application for the waters surrounding the Iberian Peninsula, North Africa and the West Mediterranean islands.