Estudio de la Contaminación Luminosa en San Nicolás, Argentina

QUARANTA, N. E.; CIONCO, R. G.; LÓPEZ, H.

Lima

Congreso; VII Congreso Panamericano de Iluminación Luxamérica 2004; 2004

The excessive and irresponsible use of electricity in outdoor lighting, is the root cause of environmental aggression called light pollution. This emission to the atmosphere (direct or indirect) of light from artificial sources, in different spectral ranges, has manifest effects that have been observed over recent years. Alterations in the night sky brightness, biodiversity, light intrusion, glare, etc., are some of the consequences of this phenomenon. According to data supplied by the Provincial Department of Energy of the Province of Buenos Aires, under the Ministry of Public Works and Services, Argentina used for street lighting in their cities and towns, more than two million lamps annually, which involve consumption over 2000 million kWh energy. While this represents only about 4% of total energy consumption in the country, an important part of this energy is lost due to inefficient distribution park lighting, or improper selection of luminaires. In this paper we estimated the light pollution in the city of San Nicolas, Argentina, considering classical models for the brightness of the night sky. For this purpose a computer code that simulates the effect was developed, taking into account various standard parameters: distribution of pollutant sources, light output, population, etc. The results are compared with observations of stars by means of visual photometry