Polarization effect on radiative transfer in planetary composite atmospheres with interacting interface

A procedure of computing the radiance and the polarization parameters of radiation diffusely reflected and transmitted by an inhomogeneous, plane-parallel terrestrial atmosphere bounded by a ruffled ocean surface is discussed with the aid of the adding method. If the atmosphere and the ocean are simulated by a number of homogeneous sublayers, the matrices of radiation reflected and transmitted diffusely by the atmosphere-ocean system can be expressed in terms of these matrices of sublayers by using only a couple of iterative equations in which the polarity effect of radiation is included. Furthermore, the upwelling radiance and the polarization degree of radiation at the top of the atmosphere can be calculated by using a single iterative equation without requiring the equation for the diffuse transmission matrix of radiation. The ruffled ocean surface can be treated as an interacting interface, where the transmitted radiation from beneath the ocean surface into the atmosphere is also taken into account into the derivation of equations. Finally, sample computations of the upwelling radiance and the polarization degree of radiation from the top of the atmosphere are carried out at the wavelength of 0.60 micron.