最近的新闻报道(纽约时报)[1],[BBC][2]和[3](NPR)网站(例如)以及在冰岛审查[22]和[冰岛杂志][23]网站,关闭的雷克雅未克的街灯为了更好地享受(极光)[4](北极光),引起了我的思考。终身城市居民有很多人从来没见过一个相对黑暗的天空或超过少数的星星。即使是那些可以做所以有时候从来没有让旅程城市足够远的经验。冰岛气象局甚至有一个web页面(极光预测)[23]。所以我很好奇如果这“熄灯”技术能在一个城市其他地方除了在冰岛。然后我意识到,我甚至不知道如何开始估计有多大的观察者会降低它的周围地区户外照明以观察者的位置有明显的影响。所以我认为,在一个晴朗的夜晚,天空亮必须来自大气中的气溶胶。如果有一层气溶胶,上升到海拔1000米,然后熄灯半径约1公里至少会开始有明显的影响。我可以想象建立计算体积积分,并查找一些气溶胶粒子的散射截面,然后有他们的问题,他们的大小分布是什么,什么是实际的人口高度的函数,所以它看起来非常困难。它是大气气溶胶吗? Is there some way I can get a handle on their height in a given location? Maybe contact the local weather bureau for more information? Would a generally dry part of the world have a better chance of doing this (with say a 1 or 2 kilometer radius) than a humid part of the world? Are there some real studies out there somewhere? I know this question is a little fuzzy, it's because I am not sure how much information on this is available and I wouldn't want to pre-restrict an answer by making he question too narrow. But it can be summarized as "*How to estimate the size of an area of a city necessary to turn of lights to see the stars better*?" [1]: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/30/world/europe/iceland-northern-lights-aurora.html [2]: http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-37506571 [3]: http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/09/29/495946913/reykjavik-turns-off-street-lights-to-turn-up-the-northern-lights [4]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora [22]: http://icelandreview.com/news/2016/09/28/lights-northern-lights-show [23]: http://en.vedur.is/weather/forecasts/aurora/