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Observations of Glistening in the Environment and It’s Relationship to Stereo Vision

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Abstract

One very interesting phenomenon observed with keen interest by the author over the years has been the effect of glistening snow. At first glance, this seems to be a simple optical effect caused by specular reflection from the flat surfaces of large ice crystals, similar to the sparkle created by sparklers. It would seem that a painter painting a landscape could render such an effect by painting a tiny white dot at the point of each sparkle. This is not the case for all glistening points. The light from each point that glistens is directed from the crystal surface in a beam who’s angular size is limited by a combination of diffraction and the apparent source size. If this beam size is large enough to more than fill both pupils of the eyes of an observer, then the visual impression is the same as a simple sparkle. On the other hand, if the beam width is small enough so that the observers two pupils receive significantly differing amounts of light, the visual impression is unlike that of a simple sparkle. Each eye sees points of light of differing intensities from a point. In fact, in many cases the sparkling point is seen by only one eye.

© 1997 Optical Society of America

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