Sylvanshine is an optical phenomenon in which dew-covered trees of species whose leaves are wax-covered retroreflect beams of light, as from a vehicle's headlights, sometimes causing trees to appear to be snow-covered at night during the summer. An optical phenomenon is any observable event which results from the interaction of Light and Matter. In Biology, a species is one of the basic units of Biological classification and a Taxonomic rank. A retroreflector (sometimes called a retroflector) is a device or surface that reflects light back to its source with a minimum scattering of light The phenomenon was named and explained in 1994 by Professor Alistair Fraser of Pennsylvania State University, an expert in meteorological optics. The Pennsylvania State University (commonly known as Penn State) is a state-related, land-grant, space grant public research University Meteorology (from Greek grc μετέωρος metéōros, "high in the sky" and grc -λογία -logia) is the Interdisciplinary According to his explanation, the wax on the leaves causes water to form beads, which become, in effect, lenses. A lens is an optical device with perfect or approximate Axial symmetry which transmits and refracts Light, converging or diverging These lenses focus the light to a spot on the surface of the leaf, and the image of this spot is directed as rays in the opposite direction.
References
- Alistair B. Fraser, "The Sylvanshine: retroreflection in dew-covered trees", Applied Optics, 33, 21, 4539–4547. 1994.
- Jan O. Mattsson and Lars Bärring, "Heiligenschein and related phenomena in divergent light", Applied Optics, 40, 27, 4709–4806. Heiligenschein ( German for " Aureole " or " halo " literally "Saint's shine" is an Optical phenomenon which 2001.
- Ralf Lenke, Ulrich Mack, and Georg Maret, "Comparison of the 'glory' with coherent backscattering of light in turbid media", Journal of Optics A: Pure and Applied Optics, 4, 309&ndsah;314, 2002.
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