StreetSpectra, Analizing street lamps with smartphone cameras

Turn your smartphone into a scientific instrument to analyze lamps colors and their spectra using a grating on top of its camera

Basic information

Research information

Teacher information

Description

We aim to assess the spectral contents and geographical distribution of light pollution generated by public lighting systems.With the help of citizen scientists we are compiling a database of public observations.

All you need to join our project is to take pictures at night using your smartphone with a low cost diffraction grating on top of its camera.The resulting spectra are classified by comparing them with well known categories so the results can be mapped.

StreetSpectra is part of ACTION (Participatory science toolkit against pollution) project was co-funded by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 framework, SwafS programme. 2019/2/1-2022/1/31

Basic information

Coordinator

ACTION https://actionproject.eu

Partners

King’s College London
Dutch Butterfly Conservation
Cefriel
Dutch Research Institute For Transition
Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries
Norwegian Institute for Air Research
Sintef
T6 Ecosystems srl
Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid

Programme

Horizon Europe (programme-horizon-europe)

Project Acronym

Target groups

Topic

Applied sciences, Energy, Environmental sciences, Optics, Physics, Education

Start year

2019

End year

2022

Url

https://guaix.ucm.es/streetspectra/

Contact person

Jaime Zamorano, jzamorano@fis.ucm.es

The light emitted by street lamps could be analysed using smartphone cameras, andother simple and inexpensive portable devices. We wish to turn the smartphones intoscientific instruments to analyze lamps colors and their spectra . We will define aprocess and tools so that any citizen will be able to determine the kind of lamp installedon lampposts and its main characteristics. We are developing a very simple method toobtain the spectra of the lamps (StreetSpectra).

This is a citizen science pilot study ofthe H2020-SwafS-2018-1-824603 EU project. More info about the project at https://actionproject.eu/

Artificial light can cause pollution that is a significant contributor to biodiversity loss andhealth, and also has consequences for climate change. While the current transition toLEDs can sometimes lead to energy savings, the wavelength of light emitted is more likely to produce skyglow – the atmosphere reflects light back towards the Earth’ssurface - and can be much more damaging to plants and animals than old-style lights.The light that escapes to the atmosphere, due to an excess of illumination of a baddesign of luminaires, is dispersed and some of this light is directed back to us. Thus oneof the undesired effects of light pollution is the brightening of the night sky and the lostof the starry skies in our cities. The artificial illumination of our streets is one of themajor contributors to light pollution.We are experiencing a major change in the technology used for street lighting and mostof the high-pressure sodium (HPS), metal halide (MH) and mercury vapor (MV) lampsare being replaced by light-emitting diode lamps (LEDs). Light pollution experts workingacross different fields have warned about the impact of blue artificial light at night bothon human health, flora and fauna.

Some of the LEDs used on the street are too whiteand contains a potential hazardous blue component. Read for example ‘Long-TermComparison of Attraction of Flying Insects to Streetlights after the Transition fromTraditional Light Sources to Light-Emitting Diodes in Urban and Peri-Urban Settings’ byRoy H. A. van Grunsven, Julia Becker, Stephanie Peter, Stefan Heller & Franz Hölker( https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/22/6198).

In several US cities, where the retrofit has been performed using too white LEDs,citizens are asking the authorities to re-introduce the old warm lights.The replacement of street lights to LED technology is already taking place in Europe.In some pictures that have been taken by astronauts aboard the International Space Station you can clearly see the differences in lightning between areas in Berlin where such changes have occurred. You can browse examples at http://citiesatnight.org/. There is a vast diversity of lamps used as they belong to different companies and models, ranging from very white LEDs with CCT 6000K to warm ones with 2700K and even amber lights with lower CCT.There is scarce information on the fraction of lighting technologies employed in ourcities and also of the schedule of the retrofit changes. Location, type, number of sourcesand light pollution brightness are needed to feed into scientific models that describe thescattering in the atmosphere and the impact of light pollution at medium and longdistances from the sources.How could the citizens participate? Participants, using their own smartphone cameraand calibrating it, can determine and analyse the lamps’ spectra. Usually all the lampsin a typical street are similar and it is not necessary to take a spectrum of everylamppost. To map the lamps getting information at both ends of the street will do.They are contributing by sending the measurements to a public repository. This archivecontains the pictures and the location of the lamps. The contributor, or any interestedcitizen or researcher, can browse the open data and also the maps.

The project is very well suited for educational purposes and to raise awareness of lightpollution. We will provide primary and secondary school educators with resources forpractical labs. The data will be used to map the lamps locations and their kind. Theresults also have scientific interest.

Papers

Citizen science is a growing field that is generating new knowledge through the collaboration of citizens in scientific research.

As this field expands it has started showing that it can be integrated into education in both formal and informal learning environments. In particular, the integration into education systems is creating new synergies as students acquire not only the skills necessary for participating in the project, but also a deeper understanding of the scientific method.In terms of productivity, we have detected a few factors directly impacting the performance of the students in an environment with clear learning objectives while collaborating in the Street Spectra project.

Age. Although 12-year-old students are perfectly able to perform the tasks they usually need assistance to sing in and frequently forget their passwords.16-year-olds and older have shown more engagement and take up to 6 times more pictures than younger students.
Phone. Most schools have rules against allowing the students using their own phone at class. Some of them leave it at home, so it is not a distraction.This makes it very important to explain the needs to the teachers so they can inform the parents that phones will be needed. In some cases, students don’t have a phone at all. For them, the phone can be replaced by a computer if the school has some. A group of students using mixed systems works fine.
Internet access. Most students own a cell phone, but the youngest usually lack a data plan. Schools usually do not provide WIFI to their students, so sharing your own Internet with them. Internet access can make a difference in some places.
Motivation. Students are best motivated by their own teachers. How does the project relate to the subject they are studying? Findinga connection and mentioning it during the talk will not only stimulate the students, but the teachers. An encouraging teacher will help the students during the hands on and even offer some extra points to the students that take the project seriously.
Making a good presentation. The most important part of the activity is the initial introductory talk. We tried to make our own interesting, easy to understand and full of appealing pictures.6) Virtual classroom. The virtual classroom is the perfect place to share some homework with the students. Repeating the basic instructions and being specific about how much work is expected from them is the key. Students perform better if they are trying to reach a specific number of pictures or classifications.

StreetSpectra, Analizing street lamps with smartphone cameras

Description

Basic information

Papers

Teaching materials