The bidirectional polarized reflectance model of soil

Soil albedo is a critical parameter affecting the Earth´s climate and environment. In remote sensing data, analysis of the soil bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) has to be known. Several models for bidirectional reflectance over soil have been developed. The Hapke bidirectional reflectance model has been widely used for soil modeling. Polarization of radiation reflected by soil carries important information of soil properties. The polarized light always goes with the bidirectional reflectance. Therefore, polarization reflectance of a ground target carries equivalent important information as bidirectional reflectance. Detecting multiangle polarization information of soil becomes a new method in quantitative remote sensing. In this paper, we analyzed the existence of polarization on the soil surface in a 2π space and compared the bidirectional reflectance with the bidirectional polarized reflectance. We then developed a new polarized BRDF model of soil as the bidirectional polarization distribution function (BPDF) model. The BPDF model helps to improve classification and quantitative analysis of soil.