Yellow-Green leds: WHY?

[Willabbott]

I did email our rep at SF, and he gave pretty much the response of what we had been deciding on our own.

The yellow green is for aviation. Specifically military aviation. All the night vision stuff is yellow green. I worked with Apaches for a few years and all the night vision and targeting stuff is that color. So the YG light will not affect thier night eyes and will be the same as what they are seeing while flying...

Pretty much what we'd all been saying, other than it does seem usefull to some of us not using NV gear too..

 

[DanielG]

I did email our rep at SF, and he gave pretty much the response of what we had been deciding on our own.

Not surprising as I was an Army Instructor Pilot for most of my life

 

[greenLED]

Thanks for e-mailing SF, Willabbott. Sounds like the Y/G is preferred for color consistency between gear, as well as the low light signature. (?)

 

[2xTrinity]

I do know that yellow-green happens to be where the eye focuses best, and where the eye is the most sensitive by far. For example, when reading fine print in the dark, I find that I can read even with an almost infinitesimal amount of Y/G. However, it takes a lot more red or blue to have the same contrast (and I'm just talking black and white). Also, keep in mind that since the eye is most sensitive there, if you were to compare the radiated power output of a red LED or YG LED that had the same apparent brightness, the green would be radiating less than 20% as much power as the red -- which I believe means it will be more difficult to detect by NV equipment, which does not sharply peak in sensitivity at 555nm like the human eye.

 

[greenLED]

I thought it was cyan that our eyes "detected" more readily.

 

[sb_pete]

wow, glad I asked... This turned out really interesting.

 

[Stereodude]

As has been said many times and many different ways, Light Amplification Goggles, commonly referred to as night vision goggles do not amplify or intensify green light. So a green flashlight will not overload the goggles. The goggles are tuned to be most sensitive to the spectrum of star light (which has virtually no green in it).