On the feasibility of inversion methods based on models of urban sky glow

•A method of urban sky glow inversion is introduced based on Monte-Carlo calculations.•Imaging photometry can provide enough information for basic inversions.•The inversion technique can be used to construct maps of light pollution.•The inclusion of multiple scattering in the models plays an important role.

Multi-wavelength imaging luminance photometry of sky glow provides a huge amount of information on light pollution. However, the understanding of the measured data involves the combination of different processes and data of radiation transfer, atmospheric physics and atmospheric constitution. State-of-the-art numerical radiation transfer models provide the possibility to define an inverse problem to obtain information on the emission intensity distribution of a city and perhaps the physical properties of the atmosphere. We provide numerical tests on the solvability and feasibility of such procedures.