Abstract

Based on an algorithm presented by Wang and Gordon ¹ for estimating the aerosol scattering phase function P₁₁(Θ) and single scattering albedo ω₀ from measurements of sky radiance and aerosol optical thickness over the oceans, we formulated and tested^2,3 an extension that utilizes the radiance reflected from the ocean atmosphere system (e.g., measured by aircraft or by space-borne sensors) in addition to the sky radiance measured at the surface, to improve the estimates of P₁₁(Θ) and ω₀. This work was based on employing the scalar radiative transfer (SRTE) in an iterative scheme in which trial functions P₁₁(Θ) and ω₀ were systematically varied until a pair was found that reproduced the measured radiances. As the SRTE was used, the polarization of the light field in the atmosphere was ignored. Here, we extend the earlier work by including polarization effects, i.e., we modify the algorithm by using the vector radiative transfer (VRTE) in the inversion. This allows estimation not only of P₁₁(Θ) and ω₀, but also of the 12 element of the aerosol-scattering Mueller matrix, P₁₂(Θ).

© 1997 Optical Society of America