The Milky Way almost ‘canceled’ by the Italian sky – ANSA.it

It ‘Italy the country of the G20 with the most’ high level of light pollution: the problem ‘so widespread as to prevent the 77% of Italians to admire the unique night show of the Milky Way. Even a quarter of the population lives below ‘dazzling’ heaven, so flooded with artificial light as not to allow the eyes to activate the mode ‘night vision.

And ‘what emerges from the world of light pollution Atlas, published in the journal Science Advances by an international research group led by Italy, with the Institute of Science and Technology of Light Pollution ( istil), a nonprofit organization made up of volunteers.

” Being in first place in the ranking of the most ‘polluted countries should give pause to those who, especially at the political level, continue to oppose a restriction artificial night lighting of the abuse ”, comments the physicist Fabio Falchi dell’Istil, who led the study in collaboration with the US Agency for the atmosphere and the oceans (NOAA), the American authority of the parks national, the German center of geological research (Gfz) and the university ‘of Haifa Israel.

the situation of the heavens and’ photographed thanks to the data collected by the satellite Suomi NPP Nasa and Noaa: reworked by forty computer (with software that has calculated the propagation of light in the atmosphere), were then calibrated with a series of observations from the ground, collected for the 20% by volunteers citizens.

the data show that, in terms of area, Italy and South Korea are the countries most ” dazzled ‘of the G20, while Canada and Australia are the most’ blinds. In Western Europe, the less polluted skies are those of Scotland, Sweden, Norway, and at times even those of Austria and Spain. On a global scale, the luminous smog hides the Milky Way to a third of humanity ‘.

The information contained in the atlas are very valuable, adds Falcons,’ ‘especially now that we are on a threshold global transition to lED technology, equal to ‘light produced, potra’ increasing light pollution in the blue part of the spectrum by a factor ”.