Solving the Alhazen–Ptolemy Problem: Determining Specular Points on Spherical Surfaces for Radiative Transfer of Titan’s Seas

Abstract

Abstract Given a light source, a spherical reflector, and an observer, where on the surface of the sphere will the light be directly reflected to the observer, i.e., where is the specular point? This is known as the Alhazen–Ptolemy problem and finding this specular point for spherical reflectors is useful in applications ranging from computer rendering to atmospheric modeling to GPS communications. Existing solutions rely upon finding the roots of a quartic equation and evaluating numerically which root provides the real specular point. We offer a formulation, and two solutions thereof, for which the correct root is predeterminable, thereby allowing the construction of the fully analytical solutions we present. Being faster to compute, our solutions should prove useful in cases that require repeated calculation of the specular point, such as Monte Carlo radiative transfer, including reflections off of Titan’s hydrocarbon seas.