{"id":1844824,"date":"2025-08-06T10:58:36","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T14:58:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/?p=1844824"},"modified":"2025-08-06T11:01:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T15:01:15","slug":"two-light-pollution-maps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2025\/08\/two-light-pollution-maps\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Light Pollution Maps"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"A<\/a>
Light Pollution Map, lightpollutionmap.app (screenshot)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s been a while since I last posted something about light-pollution maps, which are used by astronomers to determine the best places to observe the night sky. But a couple of online light-pollution maps came to my attention recently: the Light Pollution Map at lightpollutionmap.app<\/em><\/a> and the Light Pollution Map at lightpollutionmap.info<\/em><\/a>. They\u2019re different services despite being similar in name and in function, though I\u2019d give the edge to .app<\/em> in user-friendliness; .info<\/em> has more tools but is fiddlier. (The usual tech dichotomy.) Confusingly, .info<\/em>, not .app<\/em>, is the one with the iPhone\/iPad app<\/a>. Both rely on NASA VIIRS<\/abbr><\/a> data and give Bortle scale<\/a> measurements for a selected location, which is the main thing. [Maps Mania<\/a>\/MetaFilter<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Previously: Light Pollution Maps<\/a>;\u00a0Testing Light Pollution Maps<\/a>;\u00a0Testing Light Pollution Maps Redux<\/a>; Darker Than You Think<\/a>; New Atlas of Artificial Sky Brightness<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been a while since I last posted something about light-pollution maps, which are used by astronomers to determine the best places to observe the night sky. But a couple of online light-pollution maps came… More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[{"did":"did:plc:hhxrnk4vub7jtlcl3ve26kjo","date":"2025-08-06T14:58:43+00:00","uri":"at:\/\/did:plc:hhxrnk4vub7jtlcl3ve26kjo\/app.bsky.feed.post\/3lvqidvfhig2s","response":"{\"uri\":\"at:\/\/did:plc:hhxrnk4vub7jtlcl3ve26kjo\/app.bsky.feed.post\/3lvqidvfhig2s\",\"cid\":\"bafyreidpvcd2thirlahqdwnrgtfl5xm4qvndsaozxjb6v4l64vhbgumpde\",\"commit\":{\"cid\":\"bafyreicn43hp7z5sloas4lek2r7kxeztwp34z4gk4xwhq4skm4re7vgdmi\",\"rev\":\"3lvqidvfsa62s\"},\"validationStatus\":\"valid\"}"}],"autoblue_post_url":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[537,536],"class_list":["post-1844824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-astronomy","tag-dark-sky","tag-light-pollution","post_format-post-format-link"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2210,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2016\/06\/new-atlas-of-artificial-sky-brightness\/","url_meta":{"origin":1844824,"position":0},"title":"New Atlas of Artificial Sky Brightness","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"13 June 2016","format":"link","excerpt":"A\u00a0new online atlas of artificial sky brightness\u00a0is now available, based on updated\u00a0light pollution\u00a0data published last week. (There's also a 3D globe version that may not work in all browsers.)\u00a0Light pollution, as I've blogged before, is the bane of professional and amateur astronomers alike, obscuring fainter objects and interfering with observations,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Astronomy"","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/astronomy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"artificial-sky","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/artificial-sky-1024x576.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/artificial-sky-1024x576.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/artificial-sky-1024x576.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/artificial-sky-1024x576.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1788534,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2020\/03\/emissions-drop-due-to-coronavirus-outbreak\/","url_meta":{"origin":1844824,"position":1},"title":"Emissions Drop Due to Coronavirus Outbreak","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"16 March 2020","format":"link","excerpt":"As you may have seen elsewhere, the coronavirus pandemic is having an impact on air pollution, as countries shut down human and economic activity in an attempt to deal with the outbreak. Take nitrogen dioxide. Tropospheric NO2 density decreased significantly over China between January and February, and the same seems\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Environment"","block_context":{"text":"Environment","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/environment\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Map of mean tropospheric NO2 density over China, January-February 2020","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/nasa-eo-china-no2-covid.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/nasa-eo-china-no2-covid.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/nasa-eo-china-no2-covid.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/nasa-eo-china-no2-covid.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1788173,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2020\/01\/interactive-pollution-tracking-map-shut-down\/","url_meta":{"origin":1844824,"position":2},"title":"Interactive Pollution Tracking Map Shut Down","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"6 January 2020","format":"link","excerpt":"The U.S. National Library of Medicine\u2019s TOXNET, an interactive map that tracked pollution, chemical exposure, toxicology and other data, was shut down last month. The move has been criticized in the context of the Trump administration\u2019s rollback of environmental protections, but the NLM insists that the decision was theirs. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Environment"","block_context":{"text":"Environment","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/environment\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4127,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2017\/03\/mapping-great-lakes-pollution\/","url_meta":{"origin":1844824,"position":3},"title":"Mapping Great Lakes Pollution","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"31 March 2017","format":"link","excerpt":"President Trump's budget proposes eliminating the EPA's\u00a0Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. That fact is no doubt what's behind two publications posting\u00a0maps earlier this month, only a couple of days apart, showing the environmental stresses on the Great Lakes basin. Canadian Geographic reposted a map from their July\/August 2013 issue: And the\u00a0Washington\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Environment"","block_context":{"text":"Environment","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/environment\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/cangeo-great-lakes-1024x795.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/cangeo-great-lakes-1024x795.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/cangeo-great-lakes-1024x795.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/cangeo-great-lakes-1024x795.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1786720,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2018\/11\/california-wildfire-roundup\/","url_meta":{"origin":1844824,"position":4},"title":"California Wildfire Roundup","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"20 November 2018","format":"link","excerpt":"The San Francisco Chronicle\u2019s 2018 California Fire Tracker is an interactive map of ongoing and contained wildfires\u2014notably, at this moment, the Camp and Woolsey fires. It includes fire perimeter and air quality data. (Note: it's glitchy on desktop Safari.) Two Esri maps: a general wildfire map and a map of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Weather and Climate"","block_context":{"text":"Weather and Climate","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/weather-and-climate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/sf-fire-tracker-1024x521.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/sf-fire-tracker-1024x521.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/sf-fire-tracker-1024x521.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/sf-fire-tracker-1024x521.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4306,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2017\/04\/the-earth-at-night-updated\/","url_meta":{"origin":1844824,"position":5},"title":"The Earth at Night, Updated","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"18 April 2017","format":"link","excerpt":"NASA has released updated global maps of the Earth at night. The so-called \"black marble\" maps show where human activity lights up the darkness. NASA's page highlights some of the differences between the 2016 and 2012 versions of the map with before\/after interactive sliders. John Nelson has tried something different:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"light pollution\"","block_context":{"text":"light pollution","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/tag\/light-pollution\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/black-marble-1024x512.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/black-marble-1024x512.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/black-marble-1024x512.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/black-marble-1024x512.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1844824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1844824"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1844824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1844829,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1844824\/revisions\/1844829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1844824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1844824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1844824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}