Dark and Quiet Skies for Science and Society
Santa Cruz de La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain, 3 to 7 October 2021
Due to the circumstances at La Palma, the Conference will be held exclusively online
Please check this website regularly for updated information.
Application deadlines:
15 July 2021 - Deadline to propose an abstract and to apply for financial support to travel
15 August 2021 - Registration deadline for those attending in person at La Palma
24 September 2021 23:59 CEST - Registration deadline for those attending online
Registrations are closed
Background
Since millennia the silent and ordered beauty of the night sky has inspired humankind in all its intellectual and emotional expressions: poetry, philosophy, religion and science. The knowledge that we acquire from the study of celestial phenomena not only provides a deeper understanding of our place in the Universe, but also leads to technological progress. It is therefore in the interest of many sectors of society to enable astronomy and cosmology to benefit from access to the sky, free of anthropogenic interference. Moreover, beyond science and technology, the pristine spectacle of the starry night sky has been inspirational to humankind since prehistoric times and this world cultural heritage should be zealously protected.
As requested by the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS), the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and Spain are organising a Conference on "Dark and Quiet Skies for Science and Society". As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Conference could not take place in 2020 and an online Workshop was held from 5 to 9 October 2020 to discuss initial findings and draft recommendations. Following the online workshop and the comments received, the working groups of the Scientific Organising Committee (SOC) produced a report in January 2021. Recommendations from this report were presented to the Scientific and Technical Sub-Committee (STSC) of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space in April 2021. This report represents the most up-to-date and authoritative analysis of the impact on astronomy by three classes of interference: artificial light at night (ALAN), the large number of low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite trails, and radio-wavelength emission. The involvement of COPUOS is particularly important since it is the natural international forum where these matters should be brought to the attention of the space community.
Presentations, videos and the report of the online workshop of October 2020 are available via this webpage.
Objectives
The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs and Spain, jointly with the International Astronomical Union (IAU), are announcing a Conference hosted by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) at Santa Cruz de La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain from Sunday 3 October to Thursday 7 October 2021.
The Conference will focus on the implementation of recommendations, in particular identifying both the technical and political actions needed for their effective realization, as well as which stakeholders and partners would need to collaborate to implement a satisfactory solution for the preservation of a dark and quiet skies. The programme of the Conference includes invited talks as well as contributed papers selected through a call for abstracts.
Programme
The high-level programme is available through this link.
| Day 1 - Sunday, 3 October 2021 (UTC+1) | |||
| ALAN Technical Session | |||
| 09:00 | Welcome and introductions - Spain | Rafael Rebolo, Director, Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Spain | (introduced by Casiana Muñoz-Tuñón) |
| Welcome and introductions - International Astronomical Union | Constance Walker, IAU / NOIRLab | (introduced by Piero Benvenuti) | |
| Welcome and introductions - United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs | Niklas Hedman, UNOOSA | (introduced by Nathalie Ricard) | |
| 09:45 | Session 1: Introduction to the Growing Threat of ALAN | ||
| Chair: Richard Green | |||
| Overview of ALAN | Ruskin Hartley | International Dark-Sky Association, USA | |
| Global Trends on ALAN | Alejandro Sánchez Miguel | Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain | |
| Threat to the Natural World | Annette Krop-Benesch | Light Pollution Initiative Nachhaltig Beleuchten, Germany | |
| Discussion | |||
| 10:30 | Coffee Break | ||
| 11:00 | Session 2: Astronomical Site Protection | ||
| Chair: Antonia Varela | |||
| D&QS Optical Astronomy | Richard Green | University of Arizona, USA | |
| Basis in OTPC Experience | Casiana Muñoz-Tuñón | Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Spain | |
| Site Protection in Morocco | Zouhair Benkhaldoun | Cadi Ayyad University, Morocco | |
| Site Protection in China | Gongbo Zhao | National Astronomical Observatory of China, China | |
| Discussion | |||
| 12:00 | Session 3: BioEnvironment and Human Health | ||
| Chair: Annette Krop-Benesch | |||
| D&QS BioEnvironment | James Lowenthal | Smith College, USA | |
| Impact on Circadian Rhythms | Marian Rol | University of Murcia, Spain | |
| Impacts on Human Health | Mario Motta | American Medical Association, USA | |
| Discussion | |||
| 13:00 | Lunch Break | ||
| 14:30 | Session 4: Dark Sky Oases | ||
| Chair: Zouhair Benkhaldoun | |||
| Recommendations for Dark Sky Oases | John Hearnshaw | University of Canterbury, New Zealand | |
| Sustainable Development and Astrotourism | Antonia Varela Pérez | Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Spain | |
| German Dark Sky Places as best practice for protecting the night | Andreas Hänel | Dark Sky Germany, Germany | |
| Environmentally Responsible Lighting Design | Karolina Zielinska-Dabkowska | Gdansk University of Technology, Poland | |
| Poster: An overview of the light pollution of the night | Andrea Laura Sosa Oyarzabal | Centro Universitario Regional del Este (CURE) | |
| Poster: Effects of Artificial Light at Night on Animal | Saeed Jafari | University of Kurdistan, Iran | |
| Discussion | |||
| 16:00 | Session 5: Measuring and Modeling ALAN | ||
| Chair: James Lowenthal | |||
| Measurement for Regional Monitoring | Salvador Ribas | Parc Astronomic Montsec, Spain | |
| Modeling to Mitigate the Impact of ALAN | Martin Aubé | Cegep de Sherbrooke, Canada | |
| Poster: Light Pollution Observations in Indonesia | Gunawan Admiranto | Indonesian National Institute of Aeronautics and Space, Indonesia | |
| Poster: An Astronomical Observatory | Mayssa El Yazidi | Centre for Studies and Activities for Space "G. Colombo"- CISAS, Italy | |
| Poster: Remotely sensing changes in lighting | Alexandre Simoneau | Université de Sherbrooke, Canada | |
| Discussion | |||
| 17:00 | Adjourn - End of day 1 | ||
| Day 2 - Monday, 4 October 2021 (UTC+1) | |||
| ALAN Technical, Policy & Implementation session | |||
| 09:00 | Session 6: Technical Framework and Basis | ||
| Chair: Andreas Hänel | |||
| Introduce UN Model Technical Framework draft | WG Technical Contributors: Leads, Costis and Richard | ||
| Discussion | |||
| Anthropogenic Light at Night: CIE's Scientific Support as a Basis for Regulations | Jennifer Veitch | International Commission on Illumination, Canada | |
| Towards Standardized ALAN Measurement Methods & Criteria as a Policy Tool | Constantinos Bouroussis | National Technical University of Athens, Lighting Laboratory, International Commission on Illumination, Greece | |
| Dynamic Controls and Lighting Zones | Dionyz Gasparovsky | Technical University of Bratislava, International Commission on Illumination, Slovakia | |
| Discussion | |||
| 10:30 | Coffee Break | ||
| 11:00 | Session 7: ALAN Policy and Implementation | ||
| Chair: Richard Green | |||
| Introduce UN ALAN policy draft | WG Policy Contributors: Leads, Fabio, Pedro and Ruskin | ||
| Discussion | |||
| Policy and Legal Options for Implementation 1 | Aaron Lien | University of Arizona, USA | |
| Policy and Legal Options for Implementation 2 | Martin Morgan-Taylor | DeMontfort Law School, UK | |
| Laws of Dark Skies and Quiet Skies | Phil Cameron | University of Paris 1 - Panthéon Sorbonne, France | |
| Discussions | |||
| 13:00 | Lunch Break | ||
| 14:30 | Session 8: Examples of National / Regional Implementation | ||
| Chair: Gong-Bo Zhao | |||
| The Chilean Norma Luminica | Pedro Sanhueza | OPCC, Office for the Protection for the Night Sky of Northern Chile | |
| Policies in Spain: Why should artificial light at night be considered a classical pollutant? | Salvador Bará | Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Spain | |
| Implementation and Education in Portugal | Raul Cerveira Lima | School of Health Polytechn. of Porto + Inst Astroph & Space Sci, Portugal | |
| Regional Frameworks in Italy | Fabio Falchi | Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Spain | |
| Southwestern US and Hawaii | Ruskin Hartley | International Dark-Sky Association, USA | |
| Regulations in Germany and France | Andreas Hänel | Dark Sky Germany | |
| Discussions | |||
| 16:00 | Session 9: Round Table - Key Input from the Workshop Pending Issues, Next Steps | ||
| Chair: WG Co-chairs | |||
| 17:00 |
Adjourn - End of day 2
|
||
| Day 3 - Tuesday, 5 October 2021 (UTC+1) | |||
| Satellite Constellation | |||
| 09:00 | Welcome | ||
| 09:05 | Introduction | Richard Green | University of Arizona, USA |
| 09:10 | Session 10: Observations | ||
| Chair: Richard Green | |||
| Conclusions from the SATCON2 Observations Working Group: Coordination, Training, and Data Sharing | Meredith Rawls | University of Washington / Vera C. Rubin Observatory, USA | |
| Educating observers at all levels internationally | Fatoumata Kébé | Spaceable, France | |
| Dark Skies and Bright Satellites | Priya Hasan | Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad, India | |
| Discussions | |||
| 10:30 | Coffee Break | ||
| 11:00 | Session 11: Observations, cont. | ||
| Chair: Olivier Hainaut | |||
|
Optical and NIR magnitude measurements of Low Earth
Orbit satellites, from a global observing network |
Jeremy Tregloan-Reed | Universidad de Atacama, Chile | |
| The Visual Magnitude and Phase Function of Starlink Satellites | Anthony Mallama | USA | |
| Is OneWeb a threat to astronomy? | Olga María Zamora Sanchez | Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Spain | |
| An update on Canadian Space-based photometric | Robert Lauchlan Scott | Defence R&D, Canada | |
| Intruding trails in space-based astronomical observations: the CHEOPS case study | Nicolas Billot | University of Geneva, Switzerland | |
| Discussion | |||
| Analytical simulations of the effect of satellite constellations | Cees Bassa | ASTRON, Netherlands | |
| Impact on Science at Today's Telescopes | Angel Otarola | European Southern Observatory, Chile | |
| Impacts to U.S. Ground-based Facilities | Ashley Zauderer | National Science Foundation, USA | |
| Discussion | |||
| 13:00 | Lunch Break | ||
| 14:30 | Session 12: Algorithms & Aggregate Impact | ||
| Chair: Martin Aubé | |||
| Recommendations of the Algorithms Working Group from SATCON2 | Jonathan McDowell | Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, USA | |
| Test data suite - for software development and verification | Patrick Seitzer | University of Michigan, USA | |
| Latest developed features for Worldwide Telescope | Chenzhou Cui & Yunfei Xu | National Astronomical Observatory, China | |
| Discussions | |||
| The proliferation of space objects is a rapidly increasing source | John Barentine | USA | |
|
New estimates of increased artificial sky brightness from
satellite constellations |
Olivier Hainaut | European Southern Observatory, Germany | |
| Discussions | |||
| 16:30 | Session 13: Industry update | ||
| Chair: Sara Lucatello | |||
| Report of Industry Subgroup from SATCON2 | Chris Hofer | Amazon/Kuiper, USA | |
| Discussion | |||
| 17:00 | Adjourn - End of day 3 | ||
| Day 4 - Wednesday, 6 October 2021 (UTC+1) | |||
| Satellite Constellation | |||
| 09:00 | Session 14: National sub-group | ||
| Chair: Andrew Williams | |||
|
Conflicts of Interest? Satellite Constellations and the UK and
European Responses |
R. Massey | Royal Astronomical Society, UK | |
| WG Update: Report from National policy sub-group | A. Williams / L. Hallet | European Southern Observatory, Germany | |
| Defining and Regulating the Orbital Environment of Earth | C. Mudd | Mudd Law, US | |
| Presentation on ITU | V. Glaude | International Telecommunications Union | |
| Discussion on actions at the national level | L. Hallet | European Southern Observatory, Germany | |
| 11:00 | Coffee Break | ||
| 11:30 | Session 15: International sub-group | ||
| Chair: Giuliana Rotola | |||
| Report from International sub-group | Giuliana Rotola | ISU | |
| Discussion | |||
| 13:00 | Lunch Break | ||
| 14:30 | Session 16: Satellite Constellation Round table | ||
| Chairs: Giuliana Rotola and Andrew Williams | |||
| Summary of actions | Participants:
Charity Weeden, AstroScale Therese Jones, Satellite Industry Association |
||
| Satellite Constellation Discussion | |||
| Discussion | |||
| 15:30 |
Adjourn - End of day 4
|
||
| Day 5 - Thursday, 7 October 2021 (UTC+1) | |||
| Radio Astronomy | |||
| 09:00 | Session 17: Astronomy Working Group | ||
| Chair: Harvey Liszt | |||
| Working group update + Recommendations | Harvey Liszt | IUCAF and National Radio Astronomy Observatory (USA) | |
| Impact of satellites on measurements of the CMB | Michael Peel | Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (Spain) | |
|
Electromagnetic Interference caused by mega-constellations and its impact
on radio astronomy |
Federico di Vruno / Benjamin Winkel | SKA Observatory (UK) / Max Planck Institute für Radioastronomie (Germany) | |
| Meteor radio technology | Svitlana Kolomiyets | Kharkiv National University of Radio Electronics (Ukraine) | |
| 10:30 | Panel discussion and further discussion of questions | ||
| 11:00 | Coffee Break | ||
| 11:30 | Session 18: Radio Astronomy - Round Table Discussion-Radio Astronomy, Satellites, Recommendations | ||
| Chair: Harvey Liszt | |||
| Round Table | |||
| 13:00 | Lunch Break | ||
| 14:30 | Session 19: Summary of recommendations of the conference (ALAN, Satellites, Radio Astronomy) | ||
| Chairs: Niklas Hedman & Piero Benvenuti | |||
| Panelists: Richard Green, Harvey Liszt, Giuliana Rotola, Andrew Williams | |||
| Discussion | |||
| 16:00 | Closing remarks | ||
| Chair: Connie Walker | |||
| International Astronomical Union | Jose Miguel Rodriguez Espinosa | Secretary General, IAU | |
| United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs | Niklas Hedman | Chief, Committee, Policy and Legal Affairs Section, UNOOSA & Secretary of COPUOS | |
| Government of the Kingdom of Spain | Jose Manuel Ramirez Arrazola | Secretary, Permanent Representation of Spain to the United Nations, Vienna, Austria | |
| 16:30 | End of conference | ||
Registration and Call for Abstracts
Interested parties are requested to apply here.
The deadline to propose an abstract and to apply for funding is 15 July 2021.
Working Language
The working language of the Conference will be English.
Sponsorship
The Office for Outer Space Affairs and the Government of Spain are organising the Conference with the International Astronomical Union (IAU). It is supported by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias.
Sponsorship of the Conference is still open to other interested entities. Interested parties may contact
unoosa-events@un.org.
Expected Participants
The Conference addresses private industry involved in technology development that potentially emits light or radio signals interfering with astronomy, astronomers, and urban planners. The Office of Outer Space Affairs strives to support gender mainstreaming in its programmes and is also committed to ensure a balanced representation from different perspectives. Applications from female applicants are particularly encouraged.
Financial Support
Within the limited financial resources available, a limited number of selected participants will be offered financial support to attend the Conference. This financial support will defray the cost of travel (a round trip air-ticket - most economic fare - between the airport of international departure in their home country and La Palma) and/or the room and board expenses for the duration of the Conference.
Financial support from the United Nations will only be considered for individuals selected as speaker and who are presently living in a developing country. For the list of developing countries, please refer to the annex of the World Economic Situation and Prospects 2020 report.
Participants will be selected on a competitive basis, depending on their place of origin and relevant professional or educational background. Successful applicants will be notified of the outcome within two weeks after the deadline to apply for financial support.
Life and Health Insurance
Health insurance cover is necessary for each of the selected participants attending physically in La Palma and is the responsibility of the candidate or his/her institution or government. UNOOSA will neither assume any responsibility for life and major health insurance, nor for expenses related to medical treatment or accidental events.
Contact Information
For additional information, please contact: unoosa-events@un.org