An Autonomous City-Wide Light Pollution Measurement Network System Using LoRa Wireless Communication

• Published in: Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 23; no. 11; p. 5084
• Main Authors: Erwinski, Krystian, Karpinska, Dominika, Kunz, Mieczyslaw, Paprocki, Marcin, Czokow, Jaroslaw
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 26-05-2023; MDPI
• Subjects: Computer architecture; Infrared radiation; Light pollution; Light sources; LoRa; Measurement; Satellites; Semiconductor industry; Semiconductors; Sensors; Technology application; Torun metropolitan area; Urban areas; Wireless communications; wireless measurement system; Wireless sensor networks; Poland; United States; light pollution; Torun metropolitan area; wireless measurement system; LoRa
• ISSN: 1424-8220; 1424-8220
• DOI: 10.3390/s23115084

Light pollution is an ongoing problem for city populations. Large numbers of light sources at night negatively affect humans' day-night cycle. It is important to measure the amount of light pollution in order to effectively ascertain the amount of light pollution in the city area and effectively reduce it where possible and necessary. In order to perform this task, a prototype wireless sensor network for automated, long-term measurement of light pollution was developed for the Torun (Poland) city area. The sensors use LoRa wireless technology to collect sensor data from an urban area by way of networked gateways. The article investigates the sensor module architecture and design challenges as well as network architecture. Example results of light pollution measurements are presented, which were obtained from the prototype network.