Spectral Light Fields from Rural and Urban Scenes in the Netherlands

Cehao Yu from Delft University of Technology collected a spectral dataset of natural light fields in the Netherlands. The dataset contains cubic irradiance spectra measured across 24 rural and urban scenes under sunny conditions, plus continuous measurements from dawn to dusk on both sunny and cloudy days. These measurements capture how the direction, color, and diffuseness of light vary over space and time in ecologically valid conditions.

Use Cases

• Modeling biological vision systems based on natural illumination statistics.
• Simulating realistic outdoor lighting for computer graphics and vision applications.
• Analyzing temporal variation in light color and direction from dawn to dusk.
• Comparing spectral light properties between rural and urban environments.
• Studying the impact of weather (sunny vs. cloudy) on ambient light fields.

Strengths

• Includes 48 cubic measurements across 24 distinct rural and urban scenes.
• Provides continuous temporal coverage with 165 measurements on a sunny day and 124 on a cloudy day from dawn to dusk.
• Captures perceptually meaningful light attributes like direction, color, and diffuseness.

Limitations

• Specific column names and data formats are not provided in the source metadata.
• The exact row count and dataset size are unknown.
• The last update date is not specified, limiting assessment of freshness.

Provenance

Source

Cehao Yu, Delft University of Technology

Collection Method

Field measurements of cubic irradiance spectra using spectral light-field capture.

Time Range

Measurements taken across multiple days, including full days from dawn to dusk.

Geography

Netherlands (rural and urban scenes)