Abstract

Virtually all radiative transfer calculations in the ocean have neglected polarization, automatically leading to errors in the radiance distribution. This implies that if one knew the inherent optical properties exactly and used an exact scalar theory to calculate the apparent optical properties, the calculations would not agree with measurements. A Monte Carlo program has been written and tested that will simultaneously calculate radiances, neglecting polarization effects, and also the complete Stokes vector at any altitude or depth in an inhomogeneous atmosphere-ocean system. The program can also handle a stochastic dielectric interface with fixed index of refraction where a wind speed can be specified; however, for the results presented here, we assume a flat ocean. Comparisons are given to show the errors that are encountered when one neglects polarization effects for different types of volume scattering function assumed for the ocean. These errors are shown to be function of solar zenith angle, detector location, single scattering albedo, and shape of the volume scattering function in the ocean. We have assumed Rayleigh scattering only for the atmosphere to simplify interpretation.

© 1991 Optical Society of America