Street Spectra talk on ActiON kick off meeting

1. Jaime Zamorano & Carlos Tapia
Street spectra App
‘Turn your phone into a scientific instrument
to analyze lamps colors and spectra’
WP2 Citizen science accelerator

2. Universidad Complutense de Madrid is a big university
with an annual budget almost reaching 550M€ and more than 80,000 students,
the UCM is home of research groups which are in the cutting edge of research in many areas.
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GUAIX (Group of Extragalactic Astrophysics and Astronomical Instrumentation)
The main lines of research are:
• Galaxies with star formation in the Local Universe and at high redshift.
• Elliptical galaxies.
• Optical and infrared instrumentation of large telescopes.
• Processing of astronomical observations and astronomical databases.
• Light pollution.
MEGARA spectrograph for GTC telescope
TESS photometer
for Light Polution studies

3. The evolution of Madrid illumination from the sky
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4. The evolution of Madrid illumination from the sky
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Short description:
The light emitted by street lamps
could be analyzed using smartphone
cameras and other cheap and simple
portable devices if proper tools were
developed. Our proposal includes
elaborating the full process so any
citizen will be able to determine the
kind of lamp installed on lampposts
and its main characteristics
• The project is focused in data collection
and analysis of lamps used for street
lighting which is a concern of environmental
protection.
• The data acquired could be used by
interested citizens and associations to fight
against light pollution.
• The project is very well suited for education
as we will provide the teachers with the
manuals for practical work.
• The data acquired will be used to map the
luminaries locations and their kind.
Impact in Light Pollution research:
The comparison of the location, kind, light sources number and light pollution
brightness is the main input for the light pollution scientific models that
describe the scattering in the atmosphere and the impact at medium and long
distances from the sources.

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What is the pilot about? The light emitted by street lamps could be analysed using smartphone cameras, and
other simple and inexpensive portable devices. In our pilot we will define a process and tools so that any citizen will
be able to determine the kind of lamp installed on lampposts and its main characteristics.
What pollution challenges does it tackle? We are experiencing a major change in the technology used for street lighting
and most of the high-pressure sodium (HPS), metal halide (MH) and mercury (CFL) lamps are being replaced by LEDs. Light
pollution experts working across different fields have warned about the impact of blue artificial light at night both on human
health and fauna. Some of the LEDs used on the street are too white and contains a potential hazardous blue component;
especially those whose correlated colour temperature is over 3000K. 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 replacements of
street lights to LED technology is already taking place in Europe. The picture above has been taken by astronauts aboard the
International Space Station and shows clearly the differences in lightning between areas in Berlin where such changes have
occurred. There is a vast repertory of lamps used as they belong to different companies and models, ranging from very white
LEDs with CCT 6000K to warm ones with 2700K.
How could the citizens participate? Participants will be able to use their own mobile camera and calibrate it to
determine and analyse the lamps spectra. They will contribute by sending the measurements to a public repository.
In addition, some simple portable photometric devices will be designed in open hardware to further enrich the data.
What is scope of the pilot? The pilot is very well suited for educational purposes and to raise awareness of light
pollution. We will provide primary and secondary school educators with resources for practical labs. The data will be
used to map the lamps locations and their kind. The results also have scientific interest. Location, type, number of
sources and light pollution brightness are fed into scientific models that describe the scattering in the atmosphere
and the impact of light pollution at medium and long distances from the sources.
How will ACTION help? ACTION will help solve a number of challenges: (i) designing a usable, accessible app;
(ii) develop a repository to store and manage the data; (iii) motivating and incentivising participation, starting from
the Stars4All community; (iv) help build a community that learns about in-depth questions of street lightning; (v)
identify participants who could in time take specific roles in peer learning, hardware design, and activism; (vi)
develop methods to validate and share the data; (vi) find a model to fund the development of the software and
hardware in the future; and (vii) put the Street Spectra team in touch with other citizen science initiatives tackling
similar or complementary issues at various governance levels.