Lighting Design Glossary

Mesopic Vision

(Term of physiology)

Mesopic vision is the scientific term for a combination between photopic vision and scotopic vision in low but not quite dark lighting situations.

The combination of the higher total sensitivy of the rods in the eye for the blue range with the color perception through the cones results in a very strong appearance of blueish colors (eg. flowers) around dawn.

The human eye uses pure scotopic vision in the range below 0.034 cd/m², and pure photopic vision in the range above 3.4 cd/m².