Multiple scattering computations in an atmosphere-ocean system with an anisotropic Cox-Munk surface model

A multiple scattering analysis of the reflectance and degree of linear polarization image data measured by the airborne POLDER (POLarization and Directionality of Earth Reflectances) sensor has been made. The authors analyzed a subset of the Medimar campaign data over the Mediterranean Sea measured in 1991 by the airborne POLDER. Assuming an atmosphere-ocean system with an anisotropic Cox-Munk type reflecting sea surface, the theoretical reflectance and the polarization values versus the viewing angle are computed by the adding and doubling method for several different atmospheric models. the authors find that the oceanic type aerosol model is not an appropriate aerosol model but the Junge type aerosol model with 3<ν<5 is more appropriate for Medimar data by analyzing the linear polarization data in the near infrared. Adopting the Junge type aerosol model, it is shown that the ocean wind field can be retrieved by comparing the theoretical specular reflection peak with the observed one in the near infrared