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Spectral radiance gives a full radiometric description of the field of classical electromagnetic radiation of any kind, including thermal radiation and light. It is conceptually distinct from the descriptions in explicit terms of Maxwellian electromagnetic fields or of photon distribution.
The Star-Spectroscope of the Lick Observatory in 1898. Designed by James Keeler and constructed by John Brashear.. Astronomical spectroscopy is the study of astronomy using the techniques of spectroscopy to measure the spectrum of electromagnetic radiation, including visible light, ultraviolet, X-ray, infrared and radio waves that radiate from stars and other celestial objects.
Mathematically, for the spectral power distribution of a radiant exitance or irradiance one may write: =where M(λ) is the spectral irradiance (or exitance) of the light (SI units: W/m 2 = kg·m −1 ·s −3); Φ is the radiant flux of the source (SI unit: watt, W); A is the area over which the radiant flux is integrated (SI unit: square meter, m 2); and λ is the wavelength (SI unit: meter, m).
The flux to which the jansky refers can be in any form of radiant energy. It was created for and is still most frequently used in reference to electromagnetic energy, especially in the context of radio astronomy. The brightest astronomical radio sources have flux densities of the order of 1–100
Absolute photometry is the measurement of the apparent brightness of an object on a standard photometric system; these measurements can be compared with other absolute photometric measurements obtained with different telescopes or instruments. Differential photometry is the measurement of the difference in brightness of two objects.
The SED of M51 (upper right) obtained by combining data at many different wavelengths, e.g. UV, visible, and infrared (left). A spectral energy distribution (SED) is a plot of energy versus frequency or wavelength of light (not to be confused with a 'spectrum' of flux density vs frequency or wavelength). [1]
The measurement can be made directly with an instrument (such as a pyrgeometer) that collects the measured radiation all at once from all the directions of the imaginary hemisphere; in this case, Lambert-cosine-weighted integration of the spectral radiance (or specific intensity) is not performed mathematically after the measurement; the ...
The fundamental quantity that describes a field of radiation is called spectral radiance in radiometric terms (in other fields it is often called specific intensity). For a very small area element in the radiation field, there can be electromagnetic radiation passing in both senses in every spatial direction through it.