Hello, Mastodon! I’m an astrophysicist at the University of Exeter. I work on applying astrophysical methods to understanding the ecological impacts of artificial light at night #ALAN. I’m also currently working on stellar characterisation.
As The Bad Place is becoming increasingly hostile, I’m trying to share what we're working on a little more widely, so please do follow-along if you are interested in light pollution, (astro)physics, or the life of a researcher at #Exeter. 🙂
@remiboucher Thank you, Remi. Great to be here!
I really enjoyed your talk about greenhouses at #ALAN2023. A shame I didn’t manage to bump into you for a chat. Good luck with all of the work you're doing with mitigation though. Looks some promising initial results. 🙂
@smorrell Thank you Sam :) Glad you’re now here. I missed your presentation because of the parallel sessions, but I’ll be able to watch it later (I managed to saved a few because I was too short on time the week after).
Looking forward to exchanging with you in the future.
@remiboucher Completely understandable. I've actually done the same thing. Still have a few to catch up on and make notes for when I have a spare moment. There were so many fantastic talks to see, so it was very difficult to pick which ones to watch.
When you get around to watching, if you have any thoughts or questions, don't hesitate to get in touch. 🙂
@smorrell great presentation and tool Sam 👍
I’m wondering : are you taking spectrum into account for the modeling? You mentioned it for the albedo of bricks, but it should probably be also important for your « walker » behavior.
On a more human POV, I also see a great potential for case etudies of intrusive light and light trespass.
@remiboucher Thank you, Remi! 🙂
Yes, we account for spectra of lights, and the spectral reflectances of the materials we model. In this work, the walkers only sample panchromatic photon energy density, so colour insensitive. However, incorporating the characteristics of animals vision systems into the walks is on the roadmap.
Agreed! It would be great to try and scope out some case studies for this, so please do get in touch if you have any thoughts or ideas you'd like to try. 🙂
Dr Sam Morrell
Remi Boucher