Question on night vision vs water

[Gun Jam]

With NV on 3am no moon scatter clouds over Syria the terrain is easily visible but water is not. As gain is increased even with the lowest light settings in the f14 the cockpit over exposes before the horizon can be broken out from the water and in no case is the water ever visible.

ive never used NV in real life but it seems to me that terrain with trees and grass should be less reflective than water. The water has reflectance values approaching zero as far as night vision is concerned   

im going to argue that this must be a bug because if the gain can be easily adjusted for terrain then water should be no problem... I dont see cloud reflections off the terrain but I do off water. Even if waves were to disrupt the reflective value of the water's surface then points on those waves should reflect back and create a sparkle type effect  

Ive not seen this discussed before... What are your thoughts on this?

-Gun

[Ironhand]

This might provide some answers, I think:

 

 

Edited January 26, 2022 by Ironhand

[Gun Jam]

so in the first 2 seconds it looks like the ground is properly exposed and the water is over exposed... This is expected yes? Not the ground being properly exposed and the water being 1 to maybe 3 exposure values over total darkness. 

[Ironhand]

It all depends on the amount of both visible and infrared light available in the scene. If there is very little visible light available and the water is much warmer than the surrounding area or the sky, it will be brighter. If colder, it will be darker. If more light is being reflected off the water (as it is further into the video), it will be brighter. The answer to the answer is a moving target depending on the situation.