Drones Will Help Keep Tabs on Light Pollution

A recent study by The New World Atlas of Artificial Sky Brightness, found that 80 percent of Americans can’t see the Milky Way. Drones might change that. (Credit: NASA, ESA and Hubble Heritage Team) Drones now have another crucial use: monitoring light pollution. At the 2016 U.K. National Astronomy Meeting, astronomers from Nottingham Trent University presented a small device that will independently map and control the luminous haze — and it’s light enough to be a drone payload. You know when you’re in a populated area, straining your eyes to see stars at night, but for some reason all you end up seeing is a consistent, dim glow? Well, the abundant artificial light of modern living prevents the night sky from growing truly dark. This is light pollution. The Sky Quality Monitoring device (SQM), an autonomous charting tool, can map the sky to show light-polluted areas. Its small size and low weight allows it to be mounted to a drone and easily deployed to gather its data, which is stored on an SD card. SQM is built to be pretty hands-off. The operator can just place the SQM device on a drone, turn it on, and begin collecting data for an illumination map, says Ashley Fuller, student at Nottingham Trent and SQM team lead.