Artificial night light affects the day-night rhythms of all living things that are exposed to it. Limiting artificial lighting at night is one of the most overlooked challenges of the modern sustainable energy transition. Due to the high energy efficiency of modern LED systems, significantly more light can be produced for less_{CO2 and} energy costs. This often leads to significant overlighting of refurbished or converted areas. Studies show that an increase in sky brightness of several percent per year has been observed in urban regions in recent years.

Our working group is pursuing three objectives in this area:

a) Construction and comparison of measuring devices for multispectral recording of the brightness of the night sky

b) Development of networked measuring systems for large-scale evaluation and long-term monitoring of the development of sky brightness

c) Consulting, measurement and implementation of optimization measures for outdoor lighting

In north-western Germany, we work closely with LEB e.v., the Lower Saxony Wadden Sea National Park and ANWE.

These activities are currently bundled into 3 larger projects.