title: The relationship between upwelling underwater polarization and attenuation/absorption ratio.
abstract: The attenuation coefficient of the water body is not directly retrievable from measurements of unpolarized water-leaving radiance. Based on extensive radiative transfer simulations using the vector radiative transfer code RayXP, it is demonstrated that the underwater degree of linear polarization (DoLP) is closely related to the attenuation-to-absorption ratio (c/a) of the water body, a finding that enables retrieval of the attenuation coefficient from measurements of the Stokes components of the upwelling underwater polarized light field. The relationship between DoLP and the c/a ratio is investigated for the upwelling polarized light field for a complete set of viewing geometries, at several wavelengths in the visible part of the spectrum; for varying compositions of the aquatic environment, whose constituents include phytoplankton, non-algal particles, and color dissolved organic matter (CDOM); and for varying microphysical properties such as the refractive index and the slope of the Junge-type particle size distribution (PSD). Consequently, this study reveals the possibility for retrieval of additional inherent optical properties (IOPs) from air- or space-borne DoLP measurements of the water-leaving radiation.
authors.affiliation: Optical Remote Sensing Laboratory, The City College of the City University of New York, New York, New York 10031, USA.
authors.forename: Amir
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ibrahim
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gilerson
authors.forename: Tristan
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Harmel
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tonizzo
authors.forename: Jacek
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chowdhary
authors.forename: Samir
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ahmed
mesh_terms: D000042:Absorption; D000465:Algorithms; D001703:Biophysics / Q000379:methods*; D002734:Chlorophyll; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D004867:Equipment Design; D008027:Light; D055095:Optics and Photonics; D010316:Particle Size; D010839:Phytoplankton / Q000502:physiology*; D012031:Refractometry; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D014867:Water; D002734:Chlorophyll