SP01: Quantification of light pollution Investigation of the
sources and extent of the urban light dome of Berlin, and their
temporal variation Subproject 01 is carried out at the Institute
for Space Sciences at the FU Berlin (FUB ISS) and at the Leibniz
Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisherie (IGB). The
subproject investigates the light dome over Berlin, and its
variations in time and space. This will be accomplished with
both aerial and ground based measurements, in multiple spectral
channels. When light travels through the sky, it is occasionally
scattered or absorbed by atmospheric components. In the daytime,
scattering from molecules makes the sky blue and the sunset red,
scattering from water droplets produces rainbows, and scattering
and absorption from aerosols allow us to see smog. In the
nighttime, these same scattering processes return some of the
light emitted upward from cities back towards the ground,
producing the "sky glow" present over large cities at night. In
addition to blockin