Reptile Lamp Database

Colorimetry is the science to describe physically the human color perception. The wavelength range 380 nm - 780 nm is visible to humans and detected by three different photoreceptors. Many Reptiles see the range 350 nm - 800 nm and have an additional UV photoreceptor in their retina.

Whereas a spectrometer measures the intensity in every tiny wavelength interval resulting in thousands of individual intensities, the human eye only measures three intensities detected by the three cones. The same is true for the reptile eye with usually three or four photoreceptors. Effectively the detailled spectrum displayed above reduces to a much compacter bar graph displayed below. The photoreceptor sensitivites from these L-Cone, M-Cone, S-Cone, and U-Cone are used, they are chosen as an average of measured reptile photoreceptor sensitivity curves. The bar graph also shows as reference the intensity seen by the three or four photoreceptors for average sunlight (id 1).

From these three numbers the colour coordinate and the correlated colour temperature for humans are calculated using the CIE standard method. I adapted this concept to a "3 cone reptile (M,S,U)" and a "4 cone reptile (L,M,S,U)". I am sure, that this adaption to other colour spaces makes sense mathematically and this is also done in scientific research regarding colour vision of animals, however I have not seen calculation of colour temperatures for other animals in the scientific literature. Even if it is hypothetical, at least this shows, how arbitrary the colour temperature is, and that the colour temperature calculated for humans does not apply to reptiles. The colour spaces also show the colour coordinates of different phases of daylight ((ids 1, 338 – 451, 511 – 513 ), indicated by crosses, coloured in the appriximate colour perceived by a human.

	Human (CIE)	3 cone reptile	4 cone reptile
Cone Excitation
Colour Coordinate	( 0.27 ; 0.3 )	( 0.36 ; 0.56 )	( 0.25 ; 0.27 ; 0.42 )
CCT	11000 Kelvin	5800 Kelvin	5900 Kelvin
distance		0.22	0.16
colour space			3-D-graph not implemented yet

Vitamin D3 is produced by UVB radiation around 300 nm. 7DHC/ProD3 present in the skin is converted to PreD3 when absorbing an UV photon. PreD3 can be converted back to ProD3, to Lumisterol, or to Tachysterol when absorbing another UV photon or can be converted to Vitamin D3 in a warm environment.

This process prevents any overdose of vitamin D3 from UV radiation with a spectrum similar to sunlight. As a comparison the solar spectra at 20°(id:14) and at 85°(id:21) solar angle are shown.

The ratio of the two solarmeters 6.2 (UVB) and 6.5 (UV index) readings has proven a useful and very simply number to acess the spectral shape in the vitamin-d3-active region.

Effective irradiances are calculated for all ranges, actionspectra and radiometers currently present in this database.

The calculation method is a numerical implementation (Simpson's rule) of the formula

To learn more about calculating effective irradiances and radiometers I recommend this excellent report on UVB meters: Characterizing the Performance of Integral Measuring UV-Meters (pdf).

total ( 0 nm - 0 nm)	745 µW/cm² = 7.45 W/m²
UVC ( 0 nm - 280 nm)	0.929 µW/cm² = 0.00929 W/m²
non-terrestrial ( 0 nm - 290 nm)	1.2 µW/cm² = 0.012 W/m²
total2 ( 250 nm - 880 nm)	745 µW/cm² = 7.45 W/m²
UVB (EU) ( 280 nm - 315 nm)	0.905 µW/cm² = 0.00905 W/m²
UVB (US) ( 280 nm - 320 nm)	1.06 µW/cm² = 0.0106 W/m²
UVA+B ( 280 nm - 380 nm)	2.6 µW/cm² = 0.026 W/m²
Solar UVB ( 290 nm - 315 nm)	0.636 µW/cm² = 0.00636 W/m²
UVA D3 regulating ( 315 nm - 335 nm)	0.61 µW/cm² = 0.0061 W/m²
UVA (EU) ( 315 nm - 380 nm)	1.69 µW/cm² = 0.0169 W/m²
UVA2 (medical definition) ( 320 nm - 340 nm)	0.585 µW/cm² = 0.00585 W/m²
UVA (US) ( 320 nm - 380 nm)	1.53 µW/cm² = 0.0153 W/m²
UVA1 (variant) ( 335 nm - 380 nm)	1.08 µW/cm² = 0.0108 W/m²
UVA1 (medical) ( 340 nm - 400 nm)	2.05 µW/cm² = 0.0205 W/m²
vis. UVA ( 350 nm - 380 nm)	0.733 µW/cm² = 0.00733 W/m²
VIS Rep3 ( 350 nm - 600 nm)	644 µW/cm² = 6.44 W/m²
VIS Rep4 ( 350 nm - 700 nm)	732 µW/cm² = 7.32 W/m²
purple ( 380 nm - 420 nm)	46.7 µW/cm² = 0.467 W/m²
VIS ( 380 nm - 780 nm)	739 µW/cm² = 7.39 W/m²
PAR ( 400 nm - 700 nm)	730 µW/cm² = 7.3 W/m²
blue ( 420 nm - 490 nm)	284 µW/cm² = 2.84 W/m²
green ( 490 nm - 575 nm)	260 µW/cm² = 2.6 W/m²
yellow ( 575 nm - 585 nm)	30.7 µW/cm² = 0.307 W/m²
orange ( 585 nm - 650 nm)	95.3 µW/cm² = 0.953 W/m²
red ( 650 nm - 780 nm)	21.2 µW/cm² = 0.212 W/m²
IRA ( 700 nm - 1400 nm)	10.4 µW/cm² = 0.104 W/m²
IRB ( 1400 nm - 3000 nm)	0 µW/cm² = 0 W/m²

Erythema	0.594 UV-Index
Pyrimidine dimerization of DNA	0.431 µW/cm²
Photoceratitis	0.633 µW/cm²
Photoconjunctivitis	0.863 µW/cm²
DNA Damage	1.01
Vitamin D3	0.691 µW/cm²
Photosynthesis	508 µW/cm²
Luminosity	2220 lx
Human L-Cone	319 µW/cm²
Human M-Cone	300 µW/cm²
Human S-Cone	237 µW/cm²
CIE X	272 µW/cm²
CIE Y	310 µW/cm²
CIE Z	437 µW/cm²
PAR	3360000 mol photons
Extinction preD3	10.7 e-3*m²/mol
Extinction Tachysterol	24.9 e-3*m²/mol
Exctincition PreD3	9620 m²/mol
Extinction Lumisterol	8.71 m²/mol
Exctincition Tachysterol	31000 m²/mol
Extinction 7DHC	10.4 m²/mol
L-Cone	251 µW/cm²
M-Cone	270 µW/cm²
S-Cone	422 µW/cm²
U-Cone	62.7 µW/cm²
UVR - ICNIRP 2004	1.03 Rel Biol Eff
Melatonin Supression	301 µW/cm²
Blue Light Hazard	262 µW/cm² (118 µW/cm² per 1000 lx)
CIE 174:2006 PreVit D3	0.704 µW/cm²
Lumen Reptil	2330 "pseudo-lx"
Vitamin D3 Degradation	0.559 µW/cm²
Actinic UV	1.02 µW/cm² (4.61 mW/klm)
Exctincition Lumisterol	9340 m²/mol
Exctincition 7DHC	10900 m²/mol
Exctincition Toxisterols	4230 m²/mol

Solarmeter 6.2 (UVB, pre 2010)	2.34 µW/cm²
Solarmeter 6.5 (UV-Index, pre 2010)	0.264
Leybold UVB	0.742 µW/cm²
Leybold UVA	1.13 µW/cm²
Leybold UVC	0.72 µW/cm²
DeltaOhm UVB	1.24 µW/cm²
DeltaOhm UVC	0.998 µW/cm²
Vernier UVB	0.541 µW/cm²
Vernier UVA	1.12 µW/cm²
Gröbel UVA	1.4 µW/cm²
Gröbel UVB	0.895 µW/cm²
Gröbel UVC	0.761 µW/cm²
Solarmeter 6.4 (D3)	0.824 IU/min
UVX-31	1.35 µW/cm²
IL UVB	0.000871 µW/cm²
IL UVA	1.32 µW/cm²
Solarmeter 6.5 (UVI, post 2010)	0.201 UV-Index
Solarmeter 6.2 (UVB, post 2010)	0.903 µW/cm² (Solarmeter Ratio = 4.48)
Solarmeter AlGaN 6.5 UVI sensor	0.927 UV Index
GenUV 7.1 UV-Index	0.0752 UV-Index
Solarmeter 10.0 (Global Power)	7.02 W/m²
Solarmeter 4.0 (UVA)	0.077 mW/cm²
LS122	0.000988 W/m²
ISM400	4.29 W/m²