Other key indicators that showed up included the way the evaporation effect varied depending on the angle of the light, the exact color of the light, and its polarization. None of these varying characteristics should happen because at these wavelengths, water hardly absorbs light at all — and yet the researchers observed them.

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.

Chen and his co-researchers have proposed a physical mechanism that can explain the angle and polarization dependence of the effect, showing that the photons of light can impart a net force on water molecules at the water surface that is sufficient to knock them loose from the body of water. But they cannot yet account for the color dependence, which they say will require further study.

Sounds like something.

You mean... the application of energy to water causes the water molecules to excite into a gaseous state... or evaporation? When they say "Air Temperature Above" how far above do they mean? Because Air is a great insulator, you can't feel the heat of a candle till your hand is a couple of centimetres above it.

Temperature at the surface of the water is much more interesting - along with "what is the spectrum of the source light and what is the reflected spectrum of the light?" That comparison of energy loss would be much more interesting than "Temperature", which more than likely tells you the temperature of the room and not the temperature of the surface of water where the light is at.

Reading the paper attached they do look at spectrums