A brief review of Mueller matrix calculations associated with oceanic particles

Abstract

The complete Stokes vector contains much more information than the radiance of light for the remote sensing of the ocean. Unlike the conventional radiance-only radiative transfer simulations, a full Mueller matrix-Stokes vector treatment provides a rigorous and correct approach for solving the transfer of radiation in a scattering medium, such as the atmosphere-ocean system. In fact, radiative transfer simulation without considering the polarization state always gives incorrect results and the extent of the errors induced depends on a particular application being considered. However, the rigorous approach that fully takes the polarization state into account requires the knowledge of the complete single-scattering properties of oceanic particles with various sizes, morphologies, and refractive indices. For most oceanic particles, the comparisons between simulations and observations have demonstrated that the "equivalent-spherical" approximation is inadequate. We will therefore briefly summarize the advantages and disadvantages of a number of light scattering methods for non-spherical particles. Furthermore, examples for canonical cases with specifically oriented particles and randomly oriented particles will be illustrated.