Do someone knows the units of the spectra provided here ? It seems obvious enough that it's said now

sembuang711q6

sembuang711q6

Answered question

2022-05-15

Do someone knows the units of the spectra provided here ? It seems obvious enough that it's said nowhere, but even Wikipedia and other sites are quite blurry on this point.
So, is it power (W), radiance( W / m 2 s r ), or something else ?

Answer & Explanation

stormiinazlhdd

stormiinazlhdd

Beginner2022-05-16Added 12 answers

Usually, the spectrum is in arbitrary unit, proportional to the power, the radiance or whatever. The information the spectrum provides is the relative radiance of various wavelengths which is contained in the spectrum. If you want the radiance of one wavelength band, you simply multiply the relevant band of a normalized spectrum (of integral 1) by the total radiance of your source.
Paul Duran

Paul Duran

Beginner2022-05-17Added 1 answers

Most spectrometers work by spatially separating light into its component frequencies by means of a diffraction grating, and measuring that with a CCD array. That means measuring the intensity*, or power per unit area, the units of which are watts per square meter. However, there is usually an unknown scaling factor involved, so don't expect the values to actually be in W / m 2 . I would guess that the values in these files are normalized so that a value of 1 is the intensity at which the corresponding CCD pixel saturates.
*Strictly speaking, you are measuring the intensity present in one range of frequencies, but it's simpler and usually justified to just treat it as one frequency.

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