Is all the light emitted or escape above the horizontal of the luminaires in an installation of outdoor lighting. It produces a halo or glare on populations, to illuminate dust particles or water the air contains suspended. When there are clouds, the basis of these is illuminated.

We will extend this definition considering how light pollution to all the light that leaks out of the area you want to light, that is, all the wasted light energy, for direct or indirect harmful effects on the environment.

Causes of light pollution:

A sample of some highly polluting luminaires.

*The use of lighting (lamps, projectors and spotlights, etc) that due to poor lighting designer or inappropriate placement, a large part leak out of the lumen area of light is needed.

*Excessive lighting also produces significant and unnecessary loss of light by reflection from the ground and other objects sobreiluminados.

*An over-lit area, causes neighboring areas tend to imitate, equaling at least that level of enlightenment, resulting in a “chain reaction” that exacerbates the problem. This is because the human eye needs a certain time for adaptation to different light levels, so that when we move from an area with an excess of light to another reasonably well lit have the false impression that the lighting of the latter is poor or inadequate.

*The lack of sensitivity of people and above all responsible entities is mainly due to a lack of information coupled with the fact that common for a long time to live with this problem, we have become accustomed to it and no longer perceive it as such. All this leads to often, when choosing a fitting model, lacking own rational criteria, used the easy to imitate other populations with lighting pollutant, or that only takes into account criteria supposedly aesthetic, forgetting that its main function is to illuminate well.

*This photo shows an example of two characteristic types of lights pollutants: central lantern lamp without reflector (bad design) and symmetrical reflector projector, excessive tilt and without screen or visor weighting (inappropriate use). Both have major energy losses and produce a significant glare.

Possibility Related Posts:

• Consequences of light pollution
• Global – Light Pollution