Mueller matrix modeling of atmospheric scattering medium through polarized laser beam

The atmospheric scattering and absorption in turbid medium is characterized through Mueller matrix modeling of backscattered polarized laser radiation. The scattering medium is homogeneous and contains one kind of randomly distributed asymmetric particles. We used polarized He-Ne laser of specific wavelength focused on scattering medium. Different polarization components of backscattered light are obtained by varying the polarization state of incident laser light and the analyzer configuration. The calculation of the 16 element of the output Mueller matrix experimentally confirmed that theoretically only seven elements of backscattered light are independent and remaining nine can be calculated through symmetry relation. Matrix calculus concept for backscattered light fully characterized the material. Our results for turbid atmospheric system predict the absorption and scattering parameters closed to the parameters in literature. This study will be useful in remote sensing, aerospace technology, radar and lidar applications, weather predictions and upper and lower atmospheric observations