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Entry Date
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Nick Name
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Location
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Monday, July 24, 2023
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Matt D.
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Connecticut
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Entry 62 of 100 |
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Artificial Lights Used to Extend the Day
The lights are not on for very long, they are mainly used to “extend” the day. The lights are on from about 5am-7am and again from 7pm-9pm. However, since the goal is to get an idea of what the lights are actually adding in relation to PAR (Photosynthetic Active Radiation), which is a measure of the intensity of light of the wavelengths that plants can actually use for photosynthesis. While lights may look bright to us, we are more preceptive of lumens and not PAR.
To get an idea of only what the artificial lights are producing, readings were take just before 9pm when the PAR outside was -0- (moon can be seen in the image). So, any light reading is based only on the artificial supplementation and not the natural light.
To provide a general idea of the reading summaries of the leaves around the lights were generally in the 160-210 (µmol photons m −2 s −1) range with the greatest coverage being around 150 (µmol photons m −2 s −1)
Now when sunlight is over 1,600 how can this “little” amount of light impact anything? Remember plants cannot use the full intensity of the sun and also these lights are intended to only extend the day.
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