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[SOL] What % of Sunlight Is Blue or Green? [solar charts, answers in post #7]


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If anyone runs across the answer to this question, please let me know. Thanks!!

 

I have in my notes that sunlight is approximately 3% UV and 25-30% blue, but I don't where I got that from.

 

UPDATE: In Post #7 below I posted some answers to my question.

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Thanks, Clark. I have that chart but without the visible demarcations. This does help a bit.

Here is Clark's chart as a jpg in case the gif is not showing up in your browser.

solarradiation.jpg

 

 

I also found the following solar irradiance chart courtesy of http://www.pveducation.org/pvcdrom/p...ral-irradiance.

Here we can estimate the area under the curve w.r.t. UV and Vis ???

 

UV between 300-400nm is about 3 of those blocks.

Vis between 400-700nm is about 10 of those blocks.

 

But I can't find whether this chart is telling us how much reaches the earth (at sealevel, for example) or whether it is telling us what the sun is emitting. Given that I've read that the amount of UV reaching the earth is about 3% of the sun's output, I'd say that this chart must be the emission only.

ADDED: I may have been wrong about that 3% figure. See next post.

spectral-irradiance copy.jpg

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UV reaching earth's surface:

http://www.madsci.or...64750.En.r.html

The amount of UV radiation between 100 and 400 nm reaching the earth's surface is about 0.5% of the total amount of solar radiation reaching the earth's surface.

 

 

Composition of Sunlight: from Wikipedia Sunlight

Calculated from data in "Reference Solar Spectral Irradiance: Air Mass 1.5". National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Archived from the original on Sep 28, 2013. Retrieved 2009-11-12.

This is where I must have found my original statement about 3% UV. But preceding statement says that only 1/2% is between 100-400nm.

Sunlight at Earth's surface is approximately as follows. [so call it 4+42+54 = 100%.]

  • 3 to 5 percent ultraviolet (
  • 42 to 43 percent visible (400 - 700 nm)
  • 52 to 55 percent infrared (> 700 nm)

Blue light reaching earth's surface:

http://www.reviewofo...essonid/109744/

The average proportion of blue light that's found in sunlight during the day is between 25% to 30%. Even on a cloudy day, up to 80% of the sun's UV rays can pass through the clouds.

 

Now how can blue light make up 25% of sunlight if only 42% of sunlight is visible wavelengths??? Hmmmmm. That only leaves 17% for green & red. This can't be right. I think they must mean that blue light makes up 25% of visible sunlight?

 

 

Bad Blue Light: 415-455nm

http://www.reviewofo...essonid/109744/

This bad blue light is more harmful to the eye's retina and RPE cells. Here are 415, 435, 455nm interpreted for the web as (118,0,237), (35,0,255) and (0,97,255).

BadBlue.jpg

 

 

Good Blue Light: 465-495nm

http://www.reviewofo...essonid/109744/

The good blue light is essential to our vision, the function of our pupillary reflex, and in general to human health. Here are 465, 480, 495nm interpreted for the web as (0,146,255), (0,213,255) and (0,255,203).

GoodBlue.jpg

 

 

Sky Blue Light: approximately 474-476nm but slightly unsaturated, i.e., mixed with white light.

Now we can correct our photographic blue skies!! :) And I'm certainly happy that Sky Blue Light falls into the category of Good Blue Light.

"Human color vision and the unsaturated blue color of the daytime sky", Glenn S. Smith, American Journal of Physics, Volume 73, Issue 7, pp. 590-597 (2005).

Here are 474, 475, 476nm interpreted for the web as (0,187,255), (0,192,255) and (0,196,255). These are more than halfway (0,128,255) between pure cyan (0,255,255) and pure blue (0,0,255).

blueSky.jpg

 

 

Human Eye Receptors: (approximate peak) 430, 545, 572 nm

From Wiki http://en.wikipedia....ki/Color_vision with reference to Wyszecki, Günther; Stiles, W.S. (1982). Color Science: Concepts and Methods, Quantitative Data and Formulae (2nd ed.). New York: Wiley Series in Pure and Applied Optics. ISBN 0-471-02106-7.

Well, this chart is surprising!!! I suppose I expected to see some version of red on the right.

HumanEyePeaks.jpg

 

 

Convert wavelength to RGB value:

http://academo.org/d...r-relationship/

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Since we see the sunlight as "white", does not that tell us the proportion of various colors? more or less equal amounts of R, G and B? just a thought.
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The human brain plays tricks. What we "see" as white may not actually be white.

 

But see Post #7 and #8 below.

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Composition of sunlight

I want to give full credit for the charts I am posting here.

 

From the Aquarium enthusiasts at Advanced Aquarist we have three articles.

Ms. Riddle's references are the following.

  1. American Public Health Association, 1998. Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater. United Book Press, Maryland.
  2. Bradner, H., undated. Attenuation of light in clear deep ocean water.
  3. Hunt, R., 1998. Measuring Colour. Fountain Press, England. 344pp.
  4. Jerlov, N., 1976. Marine Optics. Elsevier Press, Amsterdam.
  5. Joshi, S., 2013. Equipment Review: LED Lighting Tests: Ecotech Radion Pro, Aqua Illumination Hydra, GHL Mitras 6100HV and 6200HV. http://www.advanceda...m/2013/8/review
  6. Kirk, J., 2000. Light and Photosynthesis in Aquatic Ecosystems. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 509 pp.

 

Dana Riddle's % breakdown of visible light from Table 1 in the 1st article.

 

Violet 4.98%

Blue 13.85%

Green-Blue 4.49%

Blue-Green 9.95%

*****

Green 9.98%

Yellow-Green 19.25%

Yellow 4.13%

*****

Orange 7.66%

Red 25.71%

 

 

Dana Riddle's pie chart of visible sunlight components from the 1st article.

SunlightPieChart.jpg

 

 

Dana Riddle definitions of visible bandwidths.

Keep in mind that this is not a standardized thing.

  • Violet: 400 - 430 nm
  • Blue: 431 - 480 nm
  • Green-Blue: 481 - 490 nm
  • Blue-Green: 491 - 510 nm
  • Green: 511 - 530 nm
  • Yellow-Green: 531 - 570 nm
  • Yellow: 571 - 580 nm
  • Orange: 581 - 600 nm
  • Red: 601 - 700 nm

Dana Riddle's bar chart of the visible sunlight components from the 1st article.

SunlightBarChart.jpg

 

 

Dana Riddle's chart of sunlight reaching earth from the 3rd article.

Keep in mind that atmosphere, time of year, time of day, elevation and other factors affect this kind of measurement. This chart includes UV and Infrared. Thus we can see an nice example of just how little UV reaches earth (in Hawaii anyway).

 

Sunlight quality under these conditions - 12:15pm, November 18, 2013, clear sky, 10 feet above sea level, Winds NNW @ 16mph, Humidity = 53%, Visibility = 10 miles. Vog (volcanic emission and smoke) = light. Kailua-Kona, Hawaii (19 39' 0" N, 155 59' 39" W)

SunlightAtSeaLevel.jpg

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Zach, after looking at the Pie Chart above, I'd say your speculation is approximately correct about equal amounts of R, G and B if we are willing to stretch the boundaries a bit for what constitutes R, G and B. :) :D :D
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Attempt at chart for Bee Vision peaks: 345, 440, 535nm.

535 = (112,255,0)

440 = (0,0,255)

The wavelength to RGB converter only goes as low as 380nm = (97,0,97).

So I'm very arbitrarily using (75,0,75) for 345nm.

 

BeePeaks.jpg

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thank you! this is good to know :)

Zach, after looking at the Pie Chart above, I'd say your speculation is approximately correct about equal amounts of R, G and B if we are willing to stretch the boundaries a bit for what constitutes R, G and B. :D :D :D

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