Artificial light at night: current practice, lighting conflicts, and advances in remote sensing

The introduction of artificial light to spaces at night is a radical physical environmental change, affecting both how a place can be used and how it is perceived. While often achieving its desired effect of drastically changing human behavior, the use of light at night results in negative side effects on human physiology and cultural heritage, as well as on the behavior and physiology of animals, plants, and even microorganisms. This talk will present a broad overview of outdoor light at night, and the controversy surrounding light pollution, including topics from history, technology, biology, ecology, vision science, and planning. It will conclude with a discussion of the growing subfield of remote sensing using nighttime lights, and a concept for an advanced European nighttime lights satellite mission.