The Technical University of Gdask was the first university in Poland to join the international network for measuring the brightness of the globe at night – the Sky Brightness Monitoring Network. The network includes 64 long-range monitoring sensors located in 19 countries.

Globe at Night is an international science-based citizen campaign that aims to raise people’s awareness of light pollution.

Amateurs participating in the event can conduct studies on the brightness of the environment at night with the help of smartphones, and since 2006, volunteers have achieved 185 thousand. Measurements in 180 countries.

One element of the campaign is Globe at Night – Sky Brightness Monitoring Network (GaN-MN) based on measurements made with professional sensors. It was this undertaking that the Gdask University of Technology joined as the first research institution in Poland. The sensor was installed on the roof of one of the university’s high-rise towers. The sensor allows you to continuously measure the brightness of the sky on the university campus, and the network connection allows access to data from all sensors located in different countries.

As the University of Technology explains, participation in the project is largely the result of the participation of the ILLUME research group working within the EkoTech Centre.

The idea was started by GUT and had early talks by Dr. Arch Karolina Zieliąska-Dąbkowska of the School of Architecture, while Dr. inż. Katarzyna Bobkowska of the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering supervised further work on, inter alia: starting the sensor and connecting to the network.

Participation in the project is a huge advantage of the aforementioned ILLUME group dealing with light pollution. According to PG experts, it will also draw attention to the increasingly important problem of artificial light pollution and its potential negative effects on human health and the natural environment.

The university is also conducting research on changes in sky brightness under the grant: “An innovative method for monitoring artificial light pollution in the natural and urban environment using unmanned aerial platforms (UAVs)” funded by an Argentum Triggering Research grant under the supervision of Dr. Katarzyna Popkoska.

More information on the page:

https://pg.edu.pl/aktualnosci/2021-07/politechnika-gdanska-dolaczyla-do-miedzynarodowej-sieci-pomiaru-jasnosci-nieba

http://globeatnight-network.org/index.html

PAP – Science in Poland

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