On a dark beach, the ocean is brighter than the land. What do we call that light? (NOTE: this is not bioluminescence but the soft glow of reflections)

The ocean reflects more light at night than land, and it's this soft glow that orients sea turtle hatchlings and guides them to the ocean. I've read this term before and cannot find it anywhere. Thanks in advance!!

Solution 1:

The light is a combination of skyglow and its reflection off the ocean.

How do hatchling sea turtles know where the ocean is when they emerge from their nests?
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Sea turtle hatchlings have an inborn tendency to move in the brightest direction. On a natural beach, the brightest direction is most often the open view of the night sky over, and reflected by, the ocean. Hatchlings also tend to move away from darkly silhouetted objects associated with the dune profile and vegetation. This sea-finding behavior can take place during any phase and position of the moon, which indicates that hatchlings do not depend on lunar light to lead them seaward. myfwc.com

sky glow / skyglow

sky glow n. (a) an unusual or artificially produced glow in the sky, esp. that seen in the night sky over urban areas and caused by street lighting, floodlights, etc.; also as a mass noun; (b) a uniform faint glow in the night sky caused by electromagnetic radiation emitted by excited atoms in the upper atmosphere, refracted starlight, etc.; cf. airglow n. OED

What is sky glow?

Sky glow occurs from both natural and human-made sources. The natural component of sky glow has five sources: sunlight reflected off the moon and earth, faint air glow in the upper atmosphere (a permanent, low-grade aurora), sunlight reflected off interplanetary dust (zodiacal light), starlight scattered in the atmosphere, and background light from faint, unresolved stars and nebulae (celestial objects or diffuse masses of interstellar dust and gas that appear as hazy smudges of light). Natural sky glow is well quantified. NLPIP

Sky glow is the brightening of the night sky, mostly over urban areas, due to the electric lights of cars, streetlamps, offices, factories, outdoor advertising, and buildings, turning night into day for people who work and play long after sunset.
"Light Pollution" at nationalgeographic.org

This study looked at the effect of ALAN (Artificial Light at Night) Sky Glow on reptiles:

Gumbo Limbo Nature Center Scientists Study the Effects of Sky Glow on Hatchling Sea Turtles
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Hatchlings from less developed areas such as Juno Beach took a more direct route to the ocean. This indicates that the more intense sky-glow from major cities south of Boca Raton may be influencing the sea finding capabilities of hatchlings even when they are not considered to be disoriented by lights. savetheturtles.org

Wikipedia basically limits sky glow to artificial sky glow:

This article is about the luminance of the night sky caused by artificial light sources. For the natural phenomenon arising from emission processes in the atmosphere, see airglow. For sunlight scattered from dust in the solar system, see zodiacal light. For general discussion of environmental impacts arising from the use of artificial light, see light pollution.

Skyglow (or sky glow) is the diffuse luminance of the night sky, apart from discrete light sources such as the Moon and visible individual stars. It is a commonly noticed aspect of light pollution. While usually referring to luminance arising from artificial lighting, skyglow may also involve any scattered light seen at night, including natural ones like starlight, zodiacal light, and airglow. Wiki

Related terms:

Airglow (also called nightglow) is a faint emission of light by a planetary atmosphere. In the case of Earth's atmosphere, this optical phenomenon causes the night sky never to be completely dark, even after the effects of starlight and diffused sunlight from the far side are removed. This phenomenon originates with self illuminated gases and it has no relationship with Earth's magnetism and sun spot activity. Wiki

nightglow (n.)

A faint glow seen in the night sky; (Meteorology) the faint light emitted by the upper atmosphere at night; nocturnal airglow. OED