Abstract

Under the title of this paper, Minnaert¹ discusses the work of Hulburt² on the reflection of the sun by ocean waves. If the sun is low enough, one sees a bright patch of reflected light that is more or less triangular in shape with the base at the horizon. The position of the tip of the patch depends on the height of the observer above the water while its angular width at the horizon is quite invariant. Hulburt calculated this width at the horizon on the assumption that the waves were randomly oriented reflecting surfaces of a given maximum slope. He numerically calculated this width as a function of the maximum slope of the wave and the altitude of the sun. Hulburt stated² that this relationship "is easily written down from spherical trigonometry but is too long to give here; it is made of six equations with parameters which may not readily be eliminated."

© 1990 Optical Society of America