Abstract

A radiative transfer algorithm is numerically tested for estimating the ratio of the absorption to the transport coefficients when there is no bioluminescent source. Only measurements of the in situ irradiance and scalar irradiance are required. Results of radiative transfer calculations with a phase function for San Diego harbor seawater show that the ratio is quite insensitive to the depth of the measurements and to the direction of incident solar radiation unless the absorption is very weak or the measurements are made very near the sea surface. An extension of the algorithm to the case of polarized radiative transfer indicates that there exists an analogous ratio for the circular polarization component of the Stokes vector that also might be useful.

© 1989 Optical Society of America