WASHINGTON—Light pollution caused by the incessant nighttime glow of electric lights appears to be intensifying, according to research using observations from tens of thousands of people at various locations around the world.
The study, published on Thursday, found that the number of visible stars reported at the observation sites from 2011 to 2022 decreased by an amount indicating an increase in nocturnal sky brightness of 7 to 10 percent annually, higher than previously measured using satellite data.
The areas best documented were North America—particularly the United States—and Europe, with minimal data for parts of Asia, Africa, and South America. More than 29,000 individual reports were made at more than 19,000 locations worldwide, the researchers said. The “citizen scientists” who provided the data made observations of naked-eye star visibility….