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Welcome to Darkness 4 All, a blog about my research in light pollution... Andy

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A super dark spot in Latvia

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This time I follow a recommendation by Oliver Lindecke a PhD student from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Berlin. He is working (among other stuff) on effects of artificial light on bats ( recent paper here ). Oli studies bats in Pape Village in Latvia and he told me that the bat research station is in a very dark spot. Checking the world atlas data shows that indeed across the Courland peninsula many sites are almost free of light pollution . So I pack an SQM, the camera with fisheye and fly to Riga. The plan is to go around the peninsula in the first night, do some measurements at the Northern tip, record night sky brightness wit an SQM roadrunner system along the travel and meet up with the bat researchers in the morning. Its a long drive from Riga and I arrive at Kolka Village at the northern tip just after sunset. Due to some technical problems I have to improvise and run the SQM and GPS with separate programs. But it finally works and the ...
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Dashing through the snow....

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If one wants to evaluate the impact of light pollution on lakes (or other ecosystems) it is required to put it in context with natural nocturnal but also with daylight. Daylight is supposed to be a lot. If you look into a text book it is 100 000 lx or a bit more....well here in the sub-arctics (Kilpisjärvi is at about 69° N) just 1 month after winter solstice it peaks at around 600 lx on a cloudy "day" (that is less then the textbook value at sunset of around 800lx).   Todays task is to measure the light on the lake and under the ice. So Franz and I jump back into our cool explorer suits and pull the seldge with the equipment onto the lake, where the snowmobile is waiting for a fun ride.   Our lake physics friends drop us off about 500 m from shore with our generator, light measurement devices, shovel, sledge and a drill. Although they have no time, they show us how to drill the hole in the ice.... Their task today is to do a transect. That means mea...
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Last day in Kilpisjärvi

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The Kilpisjärvi biological station in winter is a nice place for a stay. It is not busy at all, but still you meet some other researchers to discuss new ideas. It is well equipped (with stuff like sleighs, snow shoes and ski) and has an own cantine that serves breakfast and dinner. We had nice food here including the very local reindeer meat dish. The station at foot of mount Saana Stuff arctic researchers need The station is famous for the research on lemmings. They are part of the logo, you can read an article in the hallway and look at (touch?) some lemming fur. Logo of the biological station Lemmings on Nature cover Lemmings on poster On the last day in Kilpisjärvi we don't have to drill holes anymore. We can inspect data, take down our installed measurement devices and start to pack. We watch our lake physicist friends unpack their ROV ( remotely operated underwater vehicle ) a nice device that is built to skate (!) just under the ice taking measu...
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