A lighting system for an unmanned autonomous vehicle (UAV) adapts to the environment around the UAV to ensure status notification lights are visible to an operator and/or abide by regulatory lightingrequirements. A processor of the UAV may receive information from various sensors regarding environmental conditions and location of the UAV, and adjust a UAV lighting system to ensure visibility under the environmental conditions. Adjustments to the lighting system may include selection of light sources that are illuminated, the illumination intensity of particular light sources, the colors emitted by various light sources and other lighting configurations.