25 September 2013

Why is the Skyglow Observations Standard Format Important?

In the summer of 2012, Knightware participated in an international effort to define a standard file format for dark sky readings data. The data is also referred to as skyglow or light pollution data. After weeks of discussion, the standard was approved by the international community in September 2012 and resides online at http://www.darksky.org/night-sky-conservation/248.

Skyglow Standard document


The standard file format allows data to be collected using various devices, including the connected models of Unihedron's Sky Quality Meter, all of which are supported in Knightware's SQM Reader Pro 2 software.

These readings files can be shared with dark sky researchers worldwide who are studying various affects of light pollution. The interested parties include the astronomical institutions, observatory owners, and a large community of researchers that examine the biological effects of light pollution.

Given a standard file format, readings can be processed and placed in database repositories for use in research or simply for viewing by the public. For the first time, calibrated darkness data can be used on a wide-scale so that we can understand how light pollution is changing over time.

The Skyglow Standard describes in detail the meter installation, the contributor of the data, the license under which data is submitted and a description of the hardware. This information is followed by the reading data itself. There are further rules that define when a file is started and stopped and how it is named.

The Skyglow Storage definition tab in SQM Reader Pro 2


A skyglow file looks like a simple text file. This permits users to read the file with a simple ASCII text editor as shown below. The Standard assures that a well-defined dataset that can be submitted to data repositories anywhere in the world for various research purposes.

Skyglow Example File


Knightware is delighted to have participated in the development of the Skyglow Standard file format, and to support it in SQM Reader Pro 2 software, the only commercially available software that reads sky darkness data from Sky Quality Meters automatically and continuously, displays and graphs data, stores data in files and transfers it to an FTP server and post processing scripts, batch files and programs.

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