Light pollution has increased by 16 percent in less than a decade, but study reveals there's good and bad news for astrophotographers

A new study using satellites to observe Earth’s light pollution has revealed a devastating statistic for astrophotographers and skygazers: Light pollution has increased by 16 percent in less than ten years. However, the new study also has hints of hope that recent policies to reduce light pollution are actually helping.

The data comes from an international study published this week in the journal Nature. Researchers used daily satellite photos of Earth and, using NASA algorithms designed to filter out factors like moonlight and the aurora, measured changes in light pollution between 2014 and 2022.

The study found that, during that time period, light pollution increased by 16 percent. While the study has implications ranging from sleep patterns to astronomy, the study hints that astrophotographers have more light pollution to fight with in order to capture a clean view of the night sky.

However, the research isn’t all bad news. The date range allowed the study’s authors to note changes in light pollution patterns. While many of these coincided with wars and natural disasters like hurricanes that took out power grids, the researchers noted that there is a “huge area of dimming” in Europe that suggests that policies put in place to help reduce light pollution are having an impact.

In France, the effect of new policies dimmed the light pollution in the region by 33 percent, the researchers noted. However, the study noted that the US is still largely increasing in light pollution.

"We found that the Earth is not gradually brightening, it is flickering," Zhe Zhu, an associate professor of remote sensing at the University of Connecticut, told Space.com. "The brightening is mostly driven by developing countries like India, China and parts of Africa. But we also see the areas of dimming increasing every year. Some of that is due to sudden events like wars and natural disasters, but we also see a huge area of dimming in Europe, where they put policies in place. The U.S. is still mostly increasing."

Light pollution plays a key role in how many stars astrophotographers are able to photograph. Getting away from city lights is one of the most commonly offered astrophotography tips, as cameras are better able to pick up on the lights of distant stars without interference from artificial lights on Earth.

While getting away from city lights is one solution for astrophotographers, the increasing number of satellites in the sky is creating light pollution even in remote areas. (Ironically, the study was conducted using imagery from satellites.)

While the statistic that light pollution has increased by 16 percent in less than ten years is concerning, the study’s look at regions with new light pollution policies in place suggests that some of the increasing amount of artificial light on Earth can be negated.

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