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Blue sun glints on water viewed through a polarizer

Joseph A. Shaw and Michael Vollmer

Open Access Open Access

Abstract

Sun glints are formed by specular reflections of the sun from capillary waves formed by wind blowing over water. These glints are normally colorless for a high sun or take on the color of the light source, such as orange–red during sunset or sunrise. However, when the glints are highly polarized by reflection near the Brewster angle, i.e., with relatively high sun they can change from colorless to a blue appearance caused by blue light leakage through a polarizing filter oriented orthogonal to the plane of polarization of the reflected light. Measurements are shown of crossed-polarizer transmission spectra exhibiting blue and near infrared light leakage for photographic polarizing filters and polarized sunglasses. A variety of photographs is shown to confirm blue light leakage as the source of the blue glint color.

© 2017 Optical Society of America

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Figures (14)
Fig. 1.
Fig. 1. Sun glints combining to form a glitter path on the ocean.

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Fig. 2.
Fig. 2. Polarization-dependent reflectivity of a flat water surface with index of refraction = 1.331 for red light [16].

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Fig. 3.
Fig. 3. Degree of polarization for red light reflected from a flat water surface. The glints remain 90% polarized for angles of 45°–61°.

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Fig. 4.
Fig. 4. Wave-slope distribution for 3   m / s wind speed according to the Gaussian term of the Cox–Munk model for a clean water surface and equal air and water temperatures [5].

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Fig. 5.
Fig. 5. Close-up view of sun glints on the ocean with a polarizer rotated for maximum glint brightness.

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Fig. 6.
Fig. 6. Rotating the polarizer to minimize the glint brightness revealed numerous blue glints.

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Fig. 7.
Fig. 7. Office lights photographed through (a) no filter, (b) one polarizer, and (c) two crossed polarizers.

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Fig. 8.
Fig. 8. Cross-polarization transmittance spectrum of polarizing filter oriented orthogonal to a second broadband polarizer.

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Fig. 9.
Fig. 9. Reflection from a calm lake surface with the sun 1.2° from the Brewster angle (19 May 2016, 1529 UTC, solar elevation angle = 35.8 ° ) and the polarizer rotated for maximum glint brightness.

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Fig. 10.
Fig. 10. Reflection from a calm lake surface with the sun 1.2° from the Brewster angle (19 May 2016, 1529 UTC, solar elevation angle = 35.8 ° ) and the polarizer rotated for minimum glint brightness. A violet–blue glint is visible near the bottom of the image.

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Fig. 11.
Fig. 11. Close-up photograph of the sun reflection on a calm lake surface with the sun 1.2° from the Brewster angle (same time as Fig. 10) and the polarizer rotated for maximum glint brightness.

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Fig. 12.
Fig. 12. Close-up photograph of the sun reflection on a calm lake surface with the sun 1.2° from the Brewster angle (same time as Fig. 10) and the polarizer rotated for minimum glint brightness.

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Fig. 13.
Fig. 13. Transmission spectrum of Balzer sunglasses with a particularly strong blue light leakage that allows the observer to easily see blue glints on water, cars, and even patches of ice on the road.

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Fig. 14.
Fig. 14. Close-up photograph of a single sun glint on a calm water surface at the Alhambra in Granada, Spain, photographed with a smartphone camera viewing the scene through the sunglasses whose transmission is plotted in Fig. 13, oriented for minimum glint brightness (Samsung Galaxy S4, automatic setting).

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