Talk:Umov effect

Is there an explanation for the physical cause of this effect?--Srleffler 07:04, 8 December 2005 (UTC)

where $I_{\perp }$ and $I_{\|}$ are the intensities of light in the directions perpendicular and parallel to the plane of a polarizer aligned in the plane of reflection.

Maybe I just don't understand the whole definition, but how does one define the plane of reflection for a rough surface as the moon's? --Abdull 10:51, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

The roughness of the surface doesn't matter. Each point on the rough surface can have its own plane of reflection if necessary. In practice, the plane that is relevant is defined by where the source of light and the observer are. The plane you care about is the one that contains the light source, the observer's eye, and the point on the moon's surface the observer is looking at. The approximation comes not in ignoring the rough surface, but in treating the Sun and the observer's eye as a point source and point receiver.--Srleffler 17:21, 5 August 2006 (UTC)