Assessing light pollution in vast areas: Zenith sky brightness maps of Catalonia

Zenith sky brightness maps in the V and B bands of the region of Catalonia are presented in this paper. For creating them we have used the light pollution numerical model Illumina v2. The maps have a sampling of 5 × 5 km for the whole region with an improved resolution of 1 × 1 km for one of the provinces within Catalonia, Tarragona. Before creating the final maps, the methodology was tested successfully by comparing the computed values to measurements in nineteen different locations spread out throughout the territory. The resulting maps have been compared to the zenith sky brightness world atlas and also to Sky Quality Meter (SQM) dynamic measurements. When comparing to measurements we found small differences mainly due to mismatching in the location of the points studied, and also due to differences in the natural sky brightness and atmospheric content. In the comparison to the world atlas some differences were expected as we are taking into account the blocking effect of topography and obstacles, and also due to a more precise light sources characterization. The results of this work confirm the conclusion found in other studies that the minimum sampling for studying sky brightness fine details is of 1 × 1 km. However, a sampling of 5 × 5 km is interesting when studying general trends, mainly for vast areas, due to the reduction of the time required to create the maps.