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	( 0.29 ; 0.3 )	( 0.37 ; 0.41 )	( 0.23 ; 0.29 ; 0.32 )
CCT	8200 Kelvin	5500 Kelvin	6200 Kelvin
distance		0.066	0.063
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)	82.2 µW/cm² = 0.822 W/m²
UVC ( 0 nm - 280 nm)	0.00192 µW/cm² = 1.92E-5 W/m²
non-terrestrial ( 0 nm - 290 nm)	0.00292 µW/cm² = 2.92E-5 W/m²
total2 ( 250 nm - 880 nm)	82.2 µW/cm² = 0.822 W/m²
UVB (EU) ( 280 nm - 315 nm)	0.481 µW/cm² = 0.00481 W/m²
UVB (US) ( 280 nm - 320 nm)	0.522 µW/cm² = 0.00522 W/m²
UVA+B ( 280 nm - 380 nm)	6.51 µW/cm² = 0.0651 W/m²
Solar UVB ( 290 nm - 315 nm)	0.48 µW/cm² = 0.0048 W/m²
UVA D3 regulating ( 315 nm - 335 nm)	0.26 µW/cm² = 0.0026 W/m²
UVA (EU) ( 315 nm - 380 nm)	6.04 µW/cm² = 0.0604 W/m²
UVA2 (medical definition) ( 320 nm - 340 nm)	0.285 µW/cm² = 0.00285 W/m²
UVA (US) ( 320 nm - 380 nm)	5.99 µW/cm² = 0.0599 W/m²
UVA1 (variant) ( 335 nm - 380 nm)	5.77 µW/cm² = 0.0577 W/m²
UVA1 (medical) ( 340 nm - 400 nm)	7.62 µW/cm² = 0.0762 W/m²
vis. UVA ( 350 nm - 380 nm)	5.55 µW/cm² = 0.0555 W/m²
VIS Rep3 ( 350 nm - 600 nm)	65.6 µW/cm² = 0.656 W/m²
VIS Rep4 ( 350 nm - 700 nm)	79.1 µW/cm² = 0.791 W/m²
purple ( 380 nm - 420 nm)	6.49 µW/cm² = 0.0649 W/m²
VIS ( 380 nm - 780 nm)	75.5 µW/cm² = 0.755 W/m²
PAR ( 400 nm - 700 nm)	71.6 µW/cm² = 0.716 W/m²
blue ( 420 nm - 490 nm)	24.8 µW/cm² = 0.248 W/m²
green ( 490 nm - 575 nm)	23.7 µW/cm² = 0.237 W/m²
yellow ( 575 nm - 585 nm)	2.25 µW/cm² = 0.0225 W/m²
orange ( 585 nm - 650 nm)	14.4 µW/cm² = 0.144 W/m²
red ( 650 nm - 780 nm)	3.93 µW/cm² = 0.0393 W/m²
IRA ( 700 nm - 1400 nm)	2.21 µW/cm² = 0.0221 W/m²
IRB ( 1400 nm - 3000 nm)	0 µW/cm² = 0 W/m²

Erythema	0.0175 UV-Index
Pyrimidine dimerization of DNA	0.172 µW/cm²
Photoceratitis	0.0322 µW/cm²
Photoconjunctivitis	0.00208 µW/cm²
DNA Damage	0.00351
Vitamin D3	0.0694 µW/cm²
Photosynthesis	50.5 µW/cm²
Luminosity	204 lx
Human L-Cone	30.1 µW/cm²
Human M-Cone	26.3 µW/cm²
Human S-Cone	20.2 µW/cm²
CIE X	27.3 µW/cm²
CIE Y	28.2 µW/cm²
CIE Z	37.5 µW/cm²
PAR	329000 mol photons
Extinction preD3	0.527 e-3*m²/mol
Extinction Tachysterol	1.79 e-3*m²/mol
Exctincition PreD3	248 m²/mol
Extinction Lumisterol	0.0731 m²/mol
Exctincition Tachysterol	2370 m²/mol
Extinction 7DHC	0.0766 m²/mol
L-Cone	24.3 µW/cm²
M-Cone	31 µW/cm²
S-Cone	34 µW/cm²
U-Cone	18.3 µW/cm²
UVR - ICNIRP 2004	0.0141 Rel Biol Eff
Melatonin Supression	28.8 µW/cm²
Blue Light Hazard	22.6 µW/cm² (111 µW/cm² per 1000 lx)
CIE 174:2006 PreVit D3	0.0708 µW/cm²
Lumen Reptil	239 "pseudo-lx"
Vitamin D3 Degradation	0.091 µW/cm²
Actinic UV	0.0139 µW/cm² (0.681 mW/klm)
Exctincition Lumisterol	110 m²/mol
Exctincition 7DHC	99.5 m²/mol
Exctincition Toxisterols	41.3 m²/mol

Solarmeter 6.2 (UVB, pre 2010)	0.562 µW/cm²
Solarmeter 6.5 (UV-Index, pre 2010)	0.019
Leybold UVB	0.431 µW/cm²
Leybold UVA	4.14 µW/cm²
Leybold UVC	0.00141 µW/cm²
DeltaOhm UVB	0.662 µW/cm²
DeltaOhm UVC	0.0908 µW/cm²
Vernier UVB	0.154 µW/cm²
Vernier UVA	2.63 µW/cm²
Gröbel UVA	4.88 µW/cm²
Gröbel UVB	0.221 µW/cm²
Gröbel UVC	0.00129 µW/cm²
Solarmeter 6.4 (D3)	0.0594 IU/min
UVX-31	0.864 µW/cm²
IL UVB	0.000222 µW/cm²
IL UVA	5.56 µW/cm²
Solarmeter 6.5 (UVI, post 2010)	0.0167 UV-Index
Solarmeter 6.2 (UVB, post 2010)	0.321 µW/cm² (Solarmeter Ratio = 19.2)
Solarmeter AlGaN 6.5 UVI sensor	0.315 UV Index
GenUV 7.1 UV-Index	0.0174 UV-Index
Solarmeter 10.0 (Global Power)	0.766 W/m²
Solarmeter 4.0 (UVA)	0.0894 mW/cm²
LS122	0 W/m²
ISM400	0.478 W/m²