As the cornerstone of biodiversity conservation, the core value of protected areas (PAs) is to maintain an area’s natural conditions (both day and night) and to restrict human-caused disturbances to biology and the environment. Although the value of PAs has been universally recognized, light pollution within them is worsening as a result of the widespread use of artificial illumination devices. Previous studies have focused on light pollution in PAs and evaluated light radiation using nighttime light imagery. However, given the scale and span of these studies (national scale and over short periods), PA light pollution research should be advanced further. In this paper, we conducted long-term (1992–2018) monitoring and evaluation of light pollution in African PAs using aligned multi-sensor NTL data. The results showed that 1) Africa PAs were impacted by increasingly severe artificial lights during 1992–2018, with all three light indices showing an accelerating increasing trend. 2) The number of light-polluted PAs also rapidly increased, with more than 80% of PAs experiencing aggravated light pollution as of 2018. Different types of PAs had heterogeneous light pollution, which penetrates indiscriminately into all PA regulation levels. 4) Light pollution in African PAs was divided into three types, including outside invasion, internal sources, and mixed pollution. 5) Human activity intensity surrounding the PAs was highly correlated with light pollution within them, with a maximum effect distance of approximately 245 km. This paper provides new approaches for understanding the patterns of light pollution within PAs, and is a valuable reference for future PA planning.

作为生物多样性保护的基石，保护区（PA）的核心价值是保持一个地区的自然条件（白天和黑夜），并限制人为对生物和环境的干扰。尽管 PA 的价值已得到普遍认可，但由于人工照明设备的广泛使用，其中的光污染正在恶化。以前的研究主要关注 PA 中的光污染，并使用夜间光图像评估光辐射。然而，鉴于这些研究的规模和跨度（国家规模和短期），PA 光污染研究应进一步推进。在本文中，我们使用对齐的多传感器 NTL 数据对非洲 PA 的光污染进行了长期（1992-2018）监测和评估。结果表明：1）1992-2018年间，非洲保护区受到越来越严重的人造光的影响，三个光指数均呈加速上升趋势。2）光污染的PA数量也迅速增加，截至2018年80%以上的PA经历了加重的光污染。 不同类型的PA具有不均匀的光污染，不分青红皂白地渗透到所有PA监管层面。4) 非洲保护区光污染分为外侵、内源和混合污染三种类型。5) 保护区周围的人类活动强度与其内部光污染高度相关，最大影响距离约为245 km。本文提供了理解 PA 内光污染模式的新方法，