Abstract

An analytical expression is derived for the number density of sea surface specular points, ${\mathrm{\lambda }}_{\rho }.$ Unlike previous results, the present result is not limited to small wave slopes and is valid for arbitrary source and receiver location as well as for arbitrary sea surface displacement. When the source is not in the horizon, it is shown that one immediate outcome from this generalization is that the standard method for obtaining the total number of specular points over the entire (flat) sea surface is invalid. Numerical results are also given for ${\mathrm{\lambda }}_{\rho }$ as a function of wind speed and sun elevation.

© 1999 Optical Society of America

Infrared radiance of the wind-ruffled sea

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