Light Reflection from Water Waves: Suitable Setup for a Polarimetric Investigation under Controlled Laboratory Conditions

Abstract The reflection of sunlight from a wavy water surface, often referred to as sun glint, is a well-known phenomenon that presents challenges but also hitherto untapped opportunities in remote sensing based on satellite imagery. Despite being extensively investigated in the open ocean, sun glint lacks a fundamental characterization obtained under controlled laboratory conditions. A novel apparatus is presented, which is suitable for highly time-resolved measurements of light reflection from different computer-controlled wave states, with special emphasis on the detection of the polarization components. Such a system can help establish a link between the evanescent “atomic glints” from a single wave facet and the familiar sunglint pattern obtained by time averaging over a surface area containing many facets.

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