Response to White Light Emitting Diode Aviation Signal Lights Varying in Correlated Color Temperature

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Airfield lighting for runways and taxiways is currently undergoing a transition from filament-based incandescent sources to light emitting diodes (LEDs). Although models to assess the relative brightness, discomfort glare, and peripheral detectability of signal lights such as those used for aviation exist, their applicability to white LED airfield lighting has not been verified independently. A series of three experiments was conducted to compare white LED sources, having correlated color temperatures of 2,700 K and 5,900 K, in terms of their relative brightness, discomfort glare, and peripheral detectability. The perceived brightness and discomfort glare from the light sources closely matched predictions from the published models, demonstrating the usefulness of these models at characterizing these responses in airfield lighting. In the case of peripheral detectability, there was little to no difference in how quickly the two LEDs were perceived at low light levels, suggesting that there is no need to consider spectral differences between light source spectra for this response when the intensities are similar to those used in the present study.