Cockpit Lighting Choices

In recent years, theres been a move away from using red-colored lighting to illuminate cockpits, often in favor of low-intensity greenish-blue light. The reasons are numerous, but boil down to the fact rods in our retinas are most sensitive to that green/blue wavelength. But thats not the whole story.

Editorial Staff

Friday, September 25, 2015 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

Cockpit lighting is shifting from red to low-intensity greenish-blue, which aims to balance rod sensitivity for low-light vision and cone acuity for instrument details.
Red lighting also serves as a compromise, as its lower impact on rods helps preserve night vision for outside observation while maintaining cone acuity for instrument readability.
The author argues red lighting is superior for preserving pilots' ability to identify dimly lit objects outside, emphasizing that any cockpit light must be kept at minimum intensity, and other bright sources like moving maps should be managed.

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In recent years, there’s been a move away from using red-colored lighting to illuminate cockpits, often in favor of low-intensity greenish-blue light. The reasons are numerous, but boil down to the fact rods in our retinas are most sensitive to that green/blue wavelength. But that’s not the whole story.

The rods are most efficient at low light settings, but aren’t very good at distinguishing colors or details, like instrument readings. In addition to being most sensitive to the greenish-blue wavelength, they are relatively insensitive to red. Conveniently, cones are most sensitive to green light, and the green/blue colors attempt to strike a balance between the rods’ low-light sensitivity and the cones’ acuity. As long as the green/blue light is at a low intensity, using it can help preserve our ability to read the instruments.