Abstract

The effective reflectance of the foam on the ocean surface together with the fraction of the surface covered with foam describes the optical influence of whitecaps in the solar spectral range. This effective reflectance is found to be ~22% in the visible spectral range and is presented as a function of wavelength for the solar spectral range. With the fraction of the surface covered with foam, taken from the literature, the results lead to a good agreement with satellite measured radiances and albedo values. The effective reflectance is more than a factor of 2 lower than reflectance values used to date in remote sensing and radiation budget studies. Consequently, the optical influence of whitecaps can be assumed to be much less important than formerly supposed.

© 1984 Optical Society of America

Simulation of oceanic whitecaps and their reflectance characteristics in the short wavelength infrared

Frédéric Schwenger and Endre Repasi
Appl. Opt. 56(6) 1662-1673 (2017)

Influence of oceanic whitecaps on atmospheric correction of ocean-color sensors

Howard R. Gordon and Menghua Wang
Appl. Opt. 33(33) 7754-7763 (1994)

Investigation of the spectral reflectance and bidirectional reflectance distribution function of sea foam layer by the Monte Carlo method

L. X. Ma, F. Q. Wang, C. A. Wang, C. C. Wang, and J. Y. Tan
Appl. Opt. 54(33) 9863-9874 (2015)

Polarized reflectance and transmittance distribution functions of the ocean surface

Martin Hieronymi
Opt. Express 24(14) A1045-A1068 (2016)

Effects of ocean surface reflectance variation with solar elevation on normalized water-leaving radiance

Menghua Wang
Appl. Opt. 45(17) 4122-4128 (2006)