"In a series of painstakingly precise experiments, a team of researchers at MIT has demonstrated that heat isn't alone in causing water to evaporate. Light, striking the water's surface where air and water meet, can break water molecules away and float them into the air, causing evaporation in the absence of any source of heat."
"The effect is strongest when light hits the water surface at an angle of 45 degrees. It is also strongest with a certain type of polarization, called transverse magnetic polarization. And it peaks in green light -- which, oddly, is the color for which water is most transparent and thus interacts the least."
They go on to say:
"The astonishing new discovery could help explain mysterious measurements over the years of how sunlight affects clouds, and therefore affect calculations of the effects of climate change on cloud cover and precipitation. It could also lead to new ways of designing industrial processes such as solar-powered desalination or drying of materials."
Does this effect from barely-absorbed visible light really have enough energy for high-performance water desalination driven by solar energy? The paper is paywalled so I guess I'll have to take them at their word.
