There are two primary ways the Guardian can be deployed: hanging from thin wires or being mounted to a mast. Each package comes complete with wires for suspending the Guardian. Apogee also sells a mounting bracket for attaching the Guardian to poles or masts called the AM-270 (coming soon).

Accurate environmental measurements in controlled environments, such as greenhouses and growth chambers, help aid in decision making and environment management. Monitoring PAR or ePAR intensities, daily light integral and photoperiod, CO₂ concentration, barometric pressure, and other parameters is critical for plant health, growth rate, photosynthesis levels, plant morphology, and crop steering. Required levels vary greatly by species and should be measured and controlled for optimum specimen health.

To ensure accuracy, each embedded quantum sensor located in a Guardian is carefully calibrated in controlled conditions and traceable to NIST reference standards.

The Guardian comes in two different spectral ranges: 389 to 692 nm PAR (SM-500) and 383 to 757 nm ePAR (SM-600). The spectral responses of SM-500 (blue) and SM-600 (green) can be seen in the graph below.