Package `ggspectra` provides a set of stats, geoms and methods
extending packages `ggplot2` and `photobiology`. They easy the task of
plotting radiation-related spectra and of annotating the resulting plots with
labels and summary quantities derived from the spectral data.
Plot methods automate in many respects the plotting of spectral data.
'ggplot2' compatible statistics make the addition of labels or plotting of
subject-area specific summaries possible as well as the addition of labels
and wvaelength-based colour to plots easy. Available summaries are most of
those relevant to photobiology. However, many of the functions in the package
are more generaly useful for plotting UV, VIS and NIR spectra of light
emission, transmittance, reflectance, absorptance, and responses.
The available summary quantities are both simple statistical summaries and
response-weighted summaries. Simple derived quantities represent summaries of a
given range of wavelengths, and can be expressed either in energy or photon
based units. Derived biologically effective quantities are used to quantify
the effect of radiation on different organisms or processes within organisms.
These effects can range from damage to perception of informational light
signals. Additional features of spectra may be important and worthwhile
annotating in plots. Of these, local maxima (peaks) and minima (valleys)
present in spectral data can also be annotated with statistics made available
by the 'ggspectra' package.
Package 'ggspectra' is useful solely for plotting spectral data as most
functions depend on the x aesthetic being mapped to a variable containing
wavelength values expressed in nanometres. It works well together with
some other extensions to package 'ggplot2' such as packages 'ggrepel' and
'cowplot'.
This package is part of a suite of R packages for photobiological
calculations described at the
[r4photobiology](https://www.r4photobiology.info) web site.
