Joachim H. Joseph, Yoram J. Kaufman, and Yuri Mekler, "Urban light pollution: the effect of atmospheric aerosols on astronomical observations at night," Appl. Opt. 30, 3047-3058 (1991)
The transfer of diffuse city light from a localized source through a dust-laden atmosphere with optical depth <0.5 has been analyzed in the source–observer plane on the basis of an approximate treatment. The effect on several types of astronomical observation at night has been studied, considering different size distributions and amounts as well as particle shapes of the aerosols. The analysis is made not as a function of the absolute aerosol amount but in terms of the signal-to-noise ratios for a given amount of aerosol. The model is applied to conditions at the Wise Astronomical Observatory in the Negev desert and limiting backgrounds for spectroscopy, photometry, and photography of stars and extended objects have been calculated for a variety of signal-to-noise ratios. Applications to observations with different equipment at various distances from an urban area of any size are possible. Due to the use of signal-to-noise ratios, the conclusions are different for the different experimental techniques used in astronomy.
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Q = 1 × 10−24 photons/s.
Key to nomenclature on μ, the cosine of the observation angle: direction of source μ = −0.0; direction of zenith μ = −1.0 in the source half-plane and 1.0 in the antisource half-plane.
Table V
Typical Values of B for Aerosols and the Rayleigh Atmosphere
z/R
BMie
BRayleigh
0.1
0.95
0.97
0.2
0.91
0.94
0.4
0.82
0.88
0.8
0.68
0.79
1.6
0.51
0.68
3.2
0.40
0.60
6.4
0.32
0.5
FMie = 0.75; FRayleigh = 0.50.
Tables (5)
Table I
Properties of the Power-Law Size Distributions at Mizpeh Ramona
Q = 1 × 10−24 photons/s.
Key to nomenclature on μ, the cosine of the observation angle: direction of source μ = −0.0; direction of zenith μ = −1.0 in the source half-plane and 1.0 in the antisource half-plane.
Table V
Typical Values of B for Aerosols and the Rayleigh Atmosphere
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