There are different ways within the platform to adjust the metric settings. The metrics can be set at your personal account settings and when you are creating/adjusting a widget. The metric settings are visible within the whole organisation when you adjust them in the widget. For the PAR sensor, there are multiple metrics that you can choose from. But it is not always clear which metric should be used to get the right visualization of your data. So we have written this article to explain which conversions were used to convert the data to different metrics and which metric you should use when visualizing your data.
This article contains:
(μmol m-2 s-1)
Watts per square meter (W/m2)
Watts per square meter (305 - 2800nm) (W/m2)
mol m-2 s-1 (mol m-2 s-1)
mol m-2 m-1 (use freq. 60sec.) (mol m-2 min-1)
μmol m-2 min-1 (use freq. 60sec.) (μmol m-2 min-1)
DLI (use freq. 60sec.) (DLI)
mol m-2 5min-1 (use freq. 5 min.)
How can I apply the PAR metrics in my widgets?
(μmol m-2 s-1)
The PAR sensors from 30MHz measures the light intensity in μmol m-2 s-1. This means that the sensors are measuring the light intensity in micromol per square meter measured in a second. This is the default metric of the sensor.
Watts per square meter (W/m2)
The conversion that is used to convert* μmol m-2 s-1 to Watts per square meter (W/m2):
1 μmole.m2/s ≈ 0.21739130434 W/m2.
4.6 μmole.m2/s = 1 W/m2
*Note: converting micromol to Watts per square meter only gives you an estimation and not an accurate calculation. We advise using a pyranometer to measure the Watts per square meter.
Watts per square meter (305 - 2800nm) (W/m2)
The conversion that is used to convert* μmol m-2 s-1 to Watts per square meter (205 - 2800nm) (W/m2):
1 μmole.m2/s ≈ 0,47619048 W/m2 (305 - 2800nm)
2.1μmole.m2/s = 1 W/m2 (305 - 2800nm)
*Note: converting micromol to Watts per square meter only gives you an estimation and not an accurate calculation. We advise to use a pyranometer to measure the Watts per square meter.
mol m-2 s-1 (mol m-2 s-1)
The conversion that is used to convert μmol m-2 s-1 to mol m-2 s-1:
1 μmole.m2/s = 0.000001 mole.m2/s
mol m-2 m-1 (use freq. 60sec.) (mol m-2 min-1)
The conversion that is used to calculate mol m-2 m-1:
1 μmole.m2/s = 0.00006 mole.m2/m
μmol m-2 min-1 (use freq. 60sec.) (μmol m-2 min-1)
The conversion that is used to calculate μmol m-2 min-1:
1 μmole.m2/s = 60 μmole.m2/m
DLI (use freq. 60sec.) (DLI)
Conversion that is used to convert μmol m-2 s-1 to DLI:
1 μmole.m2/s = 0.00006 DLI
mol m-2 5min-1 (use freq. 5 min.)
The conversion that is used to calculate mol m-2 5min-1:
1 μmole.m2/s = 0.0003 mole.m2/5m
How can I apply the PAR metrics in my widgets?
When you create or adjust your widget, the metrics can be adjusted. As explained above, PAR has many metrics available in the platform. But which metric should you use?
The sensor measures in a second, while the platform shows the data per minute. This makes it very important to use the right metric/conversion to visualize your data in the right way.
PAR is often visualized in sum per hour/day in the last 7 days. Always use the following metrics when you are visualizing your data in SUM: mol m-2 m-1 (use freq. 60sec.) or μmol m-2 min-1 (use freq. 60sec.). With these conversions, the data is already calculated per minute, and in this way calculations and different time intervals can be used correctly when creating/editing a widget.
Did you set your measurement frequency to every 5 minutes? Always use the metric mol m-2 5min-1 (use freq. 5 min.) for the correct visualization of your data.