Sea Water Refractivity
and Reflection Coefficients

The JavaScript calculator below will compute the dielectric properties and reflection coefficients of sea water for a range of wavelengths from 200 nm to thousands of kilometers. Simply enter the wavelength and incident angle. The other parameters and the graphs below the calculator are automatically updated.


Wavelength:
 
Incident Angle:
 deg
Temperature:
 °C
Salinity:
 ppt
Complex Refractive Index:
Permittivity, ε′:
Loss Factor, ε′′:
Reflection Coefficients   rh:
  rv:   ru:
Absorption Depth:
 m
Brewster Angle:
 deg
Minimum rv:

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Plot Variable:

Discussion:

From 200 to 800 nm:

Real part of refractive index (n) is based on Mesenbrink, 1996

Imaginary part of refractive index (k) is based on Smith and Baker, 1981

From 800 nm to 100 μm:

Refractive index (n-ik) is based on Mesenbrink, 1996

From 100 μm to 1000 μm:

Refractive index (n-ik) is based on linear blend of Mesenbrink, 1996 and Meissner and Wentz, 2004

For >1 mm:

Refractive index (n-ik) is based on Meissner and Wentz, 2004. The Meissner and Wentz model is valid from: 0 - 40 ppt, -20 to +40 deg C. The freshwater model is valid to 500 GHz, and the sea water model to at least 90 GHz.

References:

Mesenbrink, M.L. (1996). Complex Indices of Refraction For Water and Ice From Visible To Long Wavelengths, Master's thesis, Florida State University.

Smith, R. C., & Baker, K. S. (1981). Optical properties of the clearest natural waters (200-800 nm). Applied Optics, 20(2), 177-184.

Meissner, T., & Wentz, F. J. (2004). The complex dielectric constant of pure and sea water from microwave satellite observations. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and remote Sensing, 42(9), 1836-1849.