Hello,
Recently I’m in a need of IR_sky_background data for my research. These data can be found exactly in the Gemini website https://www.gemini.edu/sciops/telescopes-and-sites/observing-condition-constraints/ir-background-spectra . A great contribution of Gemini to the scientific community.
However, I’ve had problems in understanding the units of these data. x axis for wavelength is fine, but y axis, emission in ph/sec/arcsec^2/nm/m^2, makes me confused. ph usually means 10000 lux, a measure of the quantity of light per unit time per unit area, and a measure that is defined based on the Luminosity function. Won’t it be inconsistent since there is already /sec/m^2 after ph? And what’s more, how can human’s eyes respond to IR waves with wavelength over 10 um?
In dimension analysis, it seems ‘Joule’ should appear in place of ‘ph’, or sometimes when we’re focusing on photon numbers there should be just ‘count’ or ‘1’ in place of ‘ph’.
Where am I wrong? Any idea to understand the data would be appreciated.