Water and Sunlight?

Question

This might sound like a weird question, but... Serious answers only please, I'm trying to do research here. :)
What would be the effect on sunlight if there was actually a barrier of water between you and the sun? Would there be more light (the water drops magnify the light like a lens) or would there be less light (the water diffuses the light)?
Sorry if this doesn't sound very scientific; I'm no scientist, but am very curious about this.
Thank you very much!

Answer 1

As with other transmissive media, water will transmit some amount of the light, reflect some amount of the light, and abosrob some amount of the light.

As it turns out, water is mostly absorbing in the visible band, only certain wavelengths of blue-green light are partially transmitted. A sufficiently long cylinder of water will look blue because most of the other wavelengths are absorbed:
http://www.lsbu.ac.uk/water/vibrat.html#blue
Note that the absorption depth of water for non-blue is quite long, which is why a glass of water appears to be transparent. If you look carefully at the absorption curve, you can see that it takes about 100 m of water to completely absorb blue-green, while red requires only about 1 m to absorp. That's why everything looks blue when you diving.

Answer 2

When light passes from one medium (air) to another (water) refraction takes place.
This means the light that was travelling straight will angle.

If your water is still then the light will travel through fairly straight and won't have as great an effect as if the water was moving.

With waves the top part causes shadow an the trough has the most light pass through.

Answer 3

Everything that light passes through absorbers some of it. A liens may focus it to a smaller point but does not increase the amount of light.