Conversion - PPFD to Foot-candles
PPFD (µmol m-2 s-1) to Foot-candles
| Light Source | Conversion Factor |
|---|---|
| Sunlight | 5.01 |
| Cool White Fluorescent Lamps | 6.87 |
| Mogul Base High Pressure Sodium Lamps | 7.62 |
| Dual-Ended High Pressure Sodium (DEHPS): ePapillion 1000 W | 7.11 |
| Metal Halide | 6.60 |
| Ceramic Metal Halide (CMH942): standard 4200 K color temperature | 6.01 |
| Ceramic Metal Halide (CMH930-Agro): 3100 K color temperature, spectrum shifted to red wavelengths | 5.45 |
| Low Pressure Sodium Lamp (monochromatic at 589 nm) | 9.85 |
| Multiply the PPFD by the conversion factor to get foot-candles. For example, full sunlight is 2000 μmol m-2 s-1 or 10,020 foot-candles (2000 ∗ 5.01). | |
Foot-candles to PPFD (µmol m-2 s-1)
| Light Source | Calibration Factor |
|---|---|
| Sunlight | 0.200 |
| Cool White Fluorescent Lamps | 0.146 |
| Mogul Base High Pressure Sodium Lamps | 0.131 |
| Dual-Ended High Pressure Sodium (DEHPS): ePapillion 1000 W | 0.141 |
| Metal Halide | 0.152 |
| Ceramic Metal Halide (CMH942): standard 4200 K color temperature | 0.167 |
| Ceramic Metal Halide (CMH930-Agro): 3100 K color temperature, spectrum shifted to red wavelengths | 0.184 |
| Low Pressure Sodium Lamp (monochromatic at 589 nm) | 0.102 |
| Multiply the foot-candles by the conversion factor to get PPFD. For example, full sunlight is 10,020 foot-candles or 2000 μmol m-2 s-1 (10,020 ∗ 0.2). | |
PPFD to Foot-candle Reference Table
Sunlight
| If PPFD is: | then, fc is: |
|---|---|
| 10 | 50.1 |
| 100 | 501 |
| 200 | 1002 |
| 300 | 1503 |
| 600 | 3006 |
| 1000 | 5010 |
| *2000 | *10,020 |
| *Full sunlight at solar noon or on a clear summer day. | |
Cool White Fluorescent
| If PPFD is: | then; fc is: |
|---|---|
| 10 | 68.7 |
| 100 | 687 |
| 200 | 1374 |
| 300 | 2061 |
| 600 | 4122 |
| 1000 | 6870 |
| 2000 | 13,740 |
Definitions
Photometric Units, Illuminance
Foot-candle: one lumen per square foot. The 16th General Conference on Weights an Measures (CGPM), Oct. 1979, decided that the candela is the luminous intensity of a source emitting monochromatic radiation of frequency 540 x 1012 Hz and radiant intensity 1/683 watt per steradian. This corresponds to 683 lumens per watt of radiation at approximately 555 nm wavelength, which is near the maximum of the standard photopic spectral luminous efficiency curve.
LUX: one lumen per square meter; differs from foot-candle by about a factor of 10.
Quantum Units, Photon Flux Density
Microeinstein: per second and square meter (µE m-2 s-1). The einstein has been used to represent the quantity of radiant energy in Avogadro's number of photons and also Avogadro's number of photons. The second definition has the einstein equal a mole of photons. While commonly used as a unit for photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), the einstein is not an SI unit.
Micromole: per second and square meter (µmol m-2 s-1). This term is based on the number of photons in a certain waveband incident per unit time (s) on a unit area (m2) divided by the Avogadro constant (6.022 x 1023 mol-1). It is used commonly to describe PAR in the 400-700 nm waveband.
Definition Source: Thimijan, Richard W., and Royal D. Heins. 1982. Photometric, Radiometric, and Quantum Light Units of Measure: A Review of Procedures for Interconversion. HortScience 18:818-822.