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Preliminary Report of Light Pollution in Indonesia - Agustinus Gunawan Admiranto et al
Based on Sky Quality Observation - Extinction and scattering parameters
derived from sky brightness
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10th Southeast Asia Astronomy Network (SEAAN) IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Journal of Physics: Conf. Series 1231 (2019) 012017 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1231/1/012017

Preliminary Report of Light Pollution in Indonesia Based on

Sky Quality Observation

A. G. Admiranto1,*, R. Priyatikanto1, S. Maryam1, Ellyyani1, and N. Suryana1

1
Space Science Center, Indonesian National Institute of Aeronautics and Space,
Jl. Dr Djundjunan 133 Bandung

Email: [email protected]

Abstract. We observed night sky quality in several LAPAN stations (Agam, Bandung,
Pontianak, Sumedang, Garut, Pasuruan, and Biak) which were conducted from April until July
2018 using Unihedron Sky Quality Meter LU-DL type. Observational data from all of the
observational points were then sent regularly to a centralized database for further use. Although
most of the measurements were done in overcast conditions, we were able to determine the
representative clear sky brightness statistically. The results showed that the light pollution level of
the most of the stations are moderate (the values at Biak, Agam, Sumedang, and Pontianak are
20.0, 19.5, 19.6, and 17.7 mpsas respectively) and the stations which are located near or in cities
are high (Bandung and Pasuruan with 17.1 and 18.0 mpsas, respectively). In a particular station
(Garut) the light pollution is low (20.6 mpsas), so it is good to make this spot to be a location of
astrotourism.

Keywords: night sky observations; Unihedron Sky Quality Meter; light pollution; astrotourism

1. Introduction
There are many challenges faced by astronomical communities, professionals and amateurs alike,
related to the observing activities. There are some issues in this respect, e. g. location, equipment, and
human resources, but the most pressing issue is the light pollution. Light pollution can disturb
astronomical observations especially to the faint object observations. Other problems are that people
can’t see the beauty of night sky, the disruption of the circadian rhythm in human and animals, and the
efficiency of energy in street lamps in cities. The investigated the light pollution and its impacts [1].
They analyzed the pollution which occurred in Europe, Asia, North America, and they concluded that
light pollution is a global issue. They observed that light pollution affects 88% of world population
and 99% of United States population. The discussion same problem and observed that this problem
also affect many regions like Central Africa and Central Asia which was previously thought were free
from this problem [2]. Nevertheless, they observed also that Venice is not affected by light pollution
due to the policy of the local government related to the light pollution. This problem of light pollution
is directly related to the sky quality. The better the sky quality, the lesser is the light pollution. The sky
quality can be measured using Sky Quality Meter device. This device records the light emitted by the
sky and calculates the incident radiation in various wavelength, and the pollution in each wavelength
can be measured. The measurement sky quality of a city in Holland in blue, green, red, and infra-red
wavelengths has been succesful [3]. His results indicated that the level of light pollution in a certain

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10th Southeast Asia Astronomy Network (SEAAN) IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Journal of Physics: Conf. Series 1231 (2019) 012017 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1231/1/012017

location depends on the dominant wavelength of the sky brightness of the location. The propagation of
light in a polluted atmosphere was analyzed to obtain sky brigtness [4]. They used a radiation
propagation model which applied to various atmospheric conditions including various types of
aerosols, i.e. volcanic and meteor dust and atmospheric gases like ozone. Their calculation was then
applied to make a map of air pollution in several locations and they found that the sky quality and air
pollution depends on several parameters, including atmospheric composition and ground reflectance.
The sky quality observation in 12 locations in Italy for 12 years [5]. The time of observations and
locations are varied, from height of 15 m until 1366 m above sea level and during winter and non-
winter season. The observations conducted after astronomical twilight. They found that the existence
of ground snow has no effect to the sky quality. Sky quality observation of Postdam-Babelsberg which
is located about 23 km from Berlin was conducted [6]. The observations were conducted in two
conditions, during moonlit sky and during overcast. They found that the sky quality was more
influenced by the cloud cover than by the changing lunar radiation due to the changing lunar phases.
From this analysis we see that the sky quality observations are more extensively conducted in the more
developed countries. So, there is some need to conduct similar observations in other regions which
have no record of sky quality observations, especially Indonesia. It is hoped that from these
observations we get some insights about the extent of light pollution in Indonesia and if there is any
location in Indonesia which are best candidate to be a dark sky park to promote astrotourism.
This paper is organized as follows. Section 2 discussed data and methodology used in this
investigation. Section 3 discussed the analysis of the data obtained, while section 4 presented the
results of this analysis. Discussion and conclusion of this investigation is presented in section 5.

2. Methodology
Data of this investigation were obtained from several LAPAN stations, i.e. Agam, Pontianak,
Sumedang, Garut, Biak, Pasuruan, and Bandung stations in which the locations are shown in Table 1
and Figure 1.

Table 1. Geographical coordinates and conditions of 7 observation stations

Stations Longitude Latitude Remarks
Agam (AGM) 100 19’ 10.00” E 0 13’ 48.00” S Rural
Pontianak (PTK) 109 20’ 23.00” E 0 02’ 48.00” N Peri urban
Bandung (BDG) 107 40’ 40.21” E 6 55’ 32.03” S Urban
Sumedang (SMD) 107 50’ 13.97” E 6 54’ 47.08” S Rural
Garut (GRT) 107 41’ 31.97” E 7 39’ 00.22” S Rural
Pasuruan (PSR) 112 40' 00.00” E 7 34' 00.00” S Peri urban
Biak (BIK) 136 01’ 00.00” E 1 17’ 00.00” S Urban

Figure1. Locations of sky quality observations using Unihedron Sky Quality Meter across Indonesia.

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10th Southeast Asia Astronomy Network (SEAAN) IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Journal of Physics: Conf. Series 1231 (2019) 012017 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1231/1/012017

The Unihedron Sky Quality Meter are SQM-LU types in which the equipment can be set to make
continuous observations in predetermined intervals. These equipment were put in a housing to protect
them from humidity and direct sunlight. This type of photodiode-based instruments has effective field
of view of ~20° and produce sky brightness data in mag/arcsec 2. All SQM was set to record zenithal
sky brightness magnitude from 5 pm to 7 am with sampling rate of one minute, regardless weather
conditions and moon phases. Figure 2 shows the equipment we use to record the sky quality.

Figure 2. Unihedron SQM LU-DL equipments with its accessories.

This equipment was designed to fetch the data automatically in a certain period of time.

These data were obtained from April until July 2018. These data were obtained under different sky
conditions, during dark and full Moon, low and high cloud cover, and clear and overcast condition.
The data then sent to Bandung and stored in a repository and organized according to data source (7
stations) to be analyzed by the researchers. The results of the observations can be summarized in Table
2 and Figure 3 below. We can see that the sky conditions in Indonesia depended upon the proximities
of those various locations to the source of night sky. There are places which are very dark, especially
in Sumedang and Garut, but there are some places that are very bright like in Bandung and Pasuruan
which are urban and peri urban in nature, respectively. From the data obtained, we then made some
plot in which we want to see the correlation of the sky brightness with the time of observations.

a) b)

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10th Southeast Asia Astronomy Network (SEAAN) IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Journal of Physics: Conf. Series 1231 (2019) 012017 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1231/1/012017

c) d)

Figure 3. Data plot of several observational points, i.e. (a) Biak, (b) Garut, (c) Agam, (d) Bandung.
These plots showed various conditions of sky qualities. These observations showed also the sky
conditions above the observational points which are mainly in cloudy conditions.

Table 2. Results of observations from LAPAN stations. These results showed the nature of light
pollution in those places.

Code Data Amount [nights] Location Brightness [mpsas] Remarks

AGM 29 Agam 19.8 Rural

BDG 50 Bandung 17.3 Urban

BIK 43 Biak 19.7 Rural

GRT 61 Garut 20.8 Rural

PSR 69 Pasuruan 17.6 Peri-urban

PTK 39 Pontianak 18.0 Peri-urban

SMD 67 Sumedang 20.1 Peri-urban

3. Results of Discussion
We then conducted other observations, in which the data was acquired in a different manner compared
with the data obtained from the stations. Whereas the station’s data were obtained from a fixed
location in an extended period of time, the other method is taking the data in a moving fashion but in a
shorter period of time compared with that of the fixed locations. The purpose of this observation is to
get the night sky quality maps in a certain area so we can get some insight about the light pollution
map in the area. This time we conducted three modes of observations. The first one is the same mode
of observations as in the stations. The second one is the same as the first one, but we used a kind of
baffle to prevent stray light from entering the equipment. The third mode used a handheld sky quality
meter. The measurements were conducted in an area which surrounds Bandung and Sumedang which
can be seen in the Figure 4.

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10th Southeast Asia Astronomy Network (SEAAN) IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Journal of Physics: Conf. Series 1231 (2019) 012017 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1231/1/012017

Figure 4. Area traversed during the measurements in moving mode.

In this mode of observations the data was recorded every 1 minute using the SQM and using the
handheld equipment the data recorded every 1 km. Using this mode of observation we got about 3200
data in which the distance traversed is about 120 km. From the data obtained in moving mode we got
values of night sky brightness along the distance traversed during the observations. We can see several
bright points, but also some points which are very dark, i.e. the value of the sky brightness is more
than 19. From this mode of observations, we can see that in general the night sky brightness of
Bandung and its surrounding area are not very good due to the light pollution. Figure 6 summarized
the observations and the data obtained in these modes. The NSB observations which had been
conducted in Bandung-Sumedang area above had shown us the map of sky brightness/light pollution
in these area. We can see some regions which are very polluted, and some other regions which are not
polluted at all. These observations showed also that moving mode of NSB observations is a good way
to get a detailed picture of sky brightness/light pollution in a certain region.

a) b)

Figure 5. Results of NSB observations with some locations which were highlighted due to its
brightness. (a) Highlighted points (b) the brightness of these points.

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10th Southeast Asia Astronomy Network (SEAAN) IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Journal of Physics: Conf. Series 1231 (2019) 012017 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1231/1/012017

As a control mode, handheld observations had proved it to be a good measurement of the reliability of
this mode. We made a correlation of this observation upon one another as shown in Fig 6. These
pictures showed us that these three modes of observations have good correlation among one another.

a) b)

Figure 6. Correlation of three modes of observations, (a) correlation of LU-DL with and without
baffle, and (b) LU-DL with baffle with handheld observations.

4. Discussion and Conclusion

We have observed night sky brightness (NSB) in several locations in Indonesia for some extended
period of time. These observations had shown us the importance of the distributed observations and
should be expanded, both spatially and temporally. Furthermore, moving NSB observations which
conducted in some limited area can be used to measure the level of light pollution in this area. From
the results of our investigation, we can propose some regions which can be used as a place of
astrotourism because of its pristine environment with respect to the NSB observed. This could also be
used as some example to other regions in preserving the beauty of the night sky so the light pollution
in other areas can be reduced. We are planning to continue the NSB observations we have conducted
in some other places so the map of light pollution over Indonesia can be completed and we can make
further contribution to the international community about the level of light pollution in Indonesia.

Acknowledgments
We would like express our gratitude to the Head of the Space Science Center of LAPAN the financial
support we got in attending the South East Asia Astronomy Network 2018 in Lampung, October 19-
21, 2018.

References
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[3] Falchi, F. 2010 Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 412 33.
[4] Falchi, F., Cinzano, P. Duriscoe, D., Kyba, C.C.M., Elvidge, C.D., Baugh, K.,. Portnov,B.A.,
Rybnikova, N.A., Furgoni, R. 2016 Science Advances 2 6
[5] Puschnig, J., Schwope, A., Posch, T., Schwarz, R., 2014, Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy &
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