Abstract

The radiant intensity and the far-field complex degree of spectral coherence for a coherent light beam incident from below and scattered from waves on an air-sea surface is calculated, assuming that the cross-spectral density function for the sea waves is quasihomogeneous. It is found that the radiant intensity is determined by the coherence properties of the sea waves, while the coherence of the transmitted beam is determined by the angular spectrum of the incident beam, if the illuminated area of the surface is much larger than the coherence area for the sea-waves on the surface.

© 1991 Optical Society of America