The distribution of the sizes of images reflected in a random surface

Abstract

It has been shown recently that a fruitful method of studying the formation of waves on the sea surface is through the average intensity of reflected sunlight, as seen from different angles ((3), (4)). This gives, in effect, the statistical distribution of the components of surface slope.Following the same line of thought, we may inquire what information could be derived from the distribution of the sizes of the reflected images of the sun. The size of an image depends essentially on the total curvature of the surface at the point of reflexion (see § 2).