According to the report, there are a total of 83,000 street lights in the city, and the project installs LED bulbs and smart switches on 30,000 of them to achieve remote dimming. In the first half of this year, street lighting from 11 pm to 5 am was dimmed by 10% every 15 minutes until the brightness dropped to half of normal.
Astronomer Brad Tucker of the Mount Stromlo Observatory in Canberra used field measurements and satellite data to find that the reduction in light pollution can be clearly measured during the dimming of street lights. Tucker said the reduced brightness of the sky at night helped see more stars and reduced carbon emissions by 1085 tons. In addition, reduced light can also reduce interference with animals.
The project was proposed by Australia National University researcher Bettey and has attracted interest from Auckland and Christchurch in new Zealand. Beitai said that through testing, it was found that people could not actually distinguish the difference between 100% brightness and 70% brightness of street lights. The project is expected to be extended to more cities in the future. (Dajo)
