Picture of the Week

This was a picture taken in the fall 1995 semester. It was taken by Uma Pimplaskar. Her picture is of a sunrise over the Ganges River in India. The atmospheric optical phenomenon it demonstrates is the sunglint. The sunglint is the specular reflection of the sun off water. Since it is specular reflection, the angle of the incident ray of light equals the angle of reflected ray. Ripples and small waves in the water change the angle of incident and result in the glitter pattern. Notice the break in the sunglint pattern. This is where the roughness of the water changes. The water appears to be much smoother where there is no sun glint. You can also clearly see the wave patterns in this image and the one that follows.

Photo by Uma Pimplaskar

Photo by Uma Pimplaskar

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