Determination of the distribution density of specular points on the sea surface: Formulation of the inverse problem

Abstract

With reference to the model of a random Gaussian homogeneous cylindrical (one-dimensional) sea surface z = zeta(x), the inverse problem is formulated in the form of the integral Fredholm equation of the first kind to determine the distribution density of the number of specular points on the sea surface. The kernel of the equation is determined in terms of the Fourier transform of the distribution density of radii of surface curvature at the points of specular reflection. The equation derived by the author earlier for the distribution density and written for the dimensionless radius of curvature contains no parameters, a result that is indicative of the universal character of this distribution for an arbitrary Gaussian surface. The validity of the original formulas obtained in this paper was verified by simulations.