Abstract The reflected near infrared solar radiation observed from space above the oceans is due mainly to the atmosphere scattering, as the ocean surface is nearly black. The molecular Rayleigh contribution is also minimized at infrared wavelengths and it can be evaluated. It is shown that the degree of polarization is much more sensitive to the aerosol properties than the radiance. Measurements of polarization at two wavelengths and with an angular scanning are simulated and an inversion algorithm is proposed. It aims at finding an “equivalent aerosol model,” which reproduces the optical thickness and the asymmetry factor of the actual aerosol at all wavelengths in the solar spectrum.


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    Title :

    Retrieval of aerosol optical characteristics from polarization measurements of reflected solar radiation above the oceans


    Contributors:
    Santer, R. (author) / Herman, M. (author) / Lenoble, J. (author)

    Published in:

    Publication date :

    1983-01-01


    Size :

    6 pages




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English