Refractivity-Chlorinity-Temperature Relationships of Ocean Waters

The Index of Refraction of Seawater

“…In our view, Miyake's real contribution was in demonstrating the additivity of refractivities of the major ionic constituents of seawater in producing the rise in index over that of pure water (see Table 3-1). Utterback, et al (1934) data with interpolated values of present study. NOTE: Miyake data in parentheses.…”

“…As an example of the progress in index determinations, their value at 589.3 nm and 20°C is 1.3329877, as compared to 1.33301 used by Utterback, et al (1934) who did not have the benefit of Tilton and Taylor's pure water data. The Tilton and…”

“…A significant effort to determine the index of refraction of seawater as a function of temperature and chlorinity was undertaken by Utterback, Thompson, and Thomas (1934) who conducted measurements with an immersion refractometer at one wavelength only (589.3 nm. Sodium D-line pair) on samples of natural seawater diluted to cover a large chlorinity range, with the highest chlorinities apparently obtained from the Mediterranean.…”

“…In Section 5 the works of Utterback, Thompson and Thomas (1934) and of Rusby (1966) will be compared with our results within the restricted ranges of the parameters they provide, even though Rusby's refractive index anomaly data are numerically the most accurate.…”

“…We will discuss these at this time, not necessarily in chronological order. We will specifically compare our interpolated results with those of Tornoe (1900), Krummel (1907), Utterback, Thompson and Thomas (1934), Miyake (1939), Rusby (1967), Mehu and Johannin-Gilles (1968), Bein, Hirsekorn andMoller (1935), andVaurabourg (1921a). All of these studies present the value of the index of refraction (with respect to air), except for Rusby who presented the difference in index from 35% 0 Copenhagen Standard Seawater (refractive index anomaly), also with respect to air.…”