Reflectivity Totally Explained

Everything about Reflectance totally explained

In photometry and heat transfer, reflectivity is the fraction of incident radiation reflected by a surface. In full generality it must be treated as a directional property that's a function of the reflected direction, the incident direction, and the incident wavelength. However it's also commonly averaged over the reflected hemisphere to give the hemispherical spectral reflectivity:

ho(lambda) = frac

Reflectivity is an important concept in the fields of solar thermal energy, telecommunication and radar.

Reflectance

In certain fields, reflectivity is distinguished from reflectance by the fact that reflectivity is a value that applies to thick reflecting objects. When reflection occurs from thin layers of material, internal reflection effects can cause the reflectance to vary with surface thickness. Reflectivity is the limit value of reflectance as the surface becomes thick; it's the intrinsic reflectance of the surface, hence irrespective of other parameters such as the reflectance of the rear surface.
The reflectance spectrum or spectral reflectance curve is the plot of the reflectivity as a function of wavelength.

Surface type

Going back to the fact that reflectivity is a directional property, it should be noted that most surfaces can be divided into those that are specular and those that are diffuse.

For specular surfaces, such as glass or polished metal, reflectivity will be nearly zero at all angles except at the appropriate reflected angle.

For diffuse surfaces, such as matte white paint, reflectivity is uniform; radiation is reflected in all angles equally or near-equally. Such surfaces are said to be Lambertian. Most real objects have some mixture of diffuse and specular reflective properties.

Water reflectivity

Reflection occurs when light moves from a medium with one index of refraction into a second medium with a different index of refraction.
That part of incident light that's reflected from a body of water is specular and is calculated by the Fresnel equations. Fresnel reflection is directional and therefore doesn't contribute significantly to albedo which is primarily diffuse reflection.
A real water surface may be wavy. Reflectivity assuming a flat surface as given by the Fresnel equations can be adjusted to account for waviness.

Further Information

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