Skyglow: a retrieval of the approximate radiant intensity function of ground-based light sources

The angular distribution of the light emitted from a city is an important source of information about public lighting systems and it also plays a key role in modelling the skyglow. Usually, the upwardly directed radiation is characterized through a parametrized emission function – a semi-empirical approach as a reasonable approximation that allows for fast computations. However, theoretical or experimental retrievals of emission characteristics are extremely difficult to obtain because of both the complexity of radiative transfer methods and/or the lack of highly specialized measuring devices. Our research has been conducted with the specific objective to identify an efficient theoretical technique for retrieval of the emission pattern of ground-based light sources in order to determine the optimum values of the scaling parameters of the Garstang function. In particular, the input data involve the zenith luminance or radiance with horizontal illuminance or irradiance. Theoretical ratios of zenith luminance LV(0) to horizontal illuminance DV are calculated for a set of distances d that separate a hypothetical observer from the light source (a city or town). This approach is advantageous because inexpensive traditional equipment can be used to obtain the mean values of the Garstang parameters. Furthermore, it can also be applied to other parametrizable emission functions and to any measuring site, even one with a masked horizon.