For general purposes of categorization, airport lighting can be broken down into four main categories: Approach, Runway, Taxiway, and Other.
Approach Lighting is all lighting before the runway threshold that guide pilots laterally to the runway centerline or vertically to a specified touchdown point via a glidepath. Runway Lighting is made up of both the lights along and on the runway itself. Taxiway lighting is all lights along and on taxiways, and the "Other" category entails all airport obstruction lighting, heliports, and the airport beacon.
