Bidirectional reflectance distribution function

From Citizendium
Revision as of 12:00, 18 July 2024 by Suggestion Bot (talk | contribs)
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This article is a stub and thus not approved.
Main Article
Discussion
Related Articles  [?]
Bibliography  [?]
External Links  [?]
Citable Version  [?]
 
This editable Main Article is under development and subject to a disclaimer.

In radiometry, the bidirectional reflectance distribution function describes how energy reflecting of a surface is spread over the hemisphere. It is a function of five variables:

  • Spectral Location (e.g. Wavelength)
  • Incident Zenith
  • Incident Azimuth
  • Exitant Zenith
  • Exitant Azimuth

A surface whose BRDF spreads incident energy evenly over the hemisphere is called lambertian or "diffuse". A surface that for a given incident vector reflects all or most energy in to the mirrored direction is called "specular".

Because the BRDF is a function of five variables, it is often characterized by making measurements at a small set of angles and wavelengths and then fitting a mathematical model to the data.