DECOUPLING PATH-SCATTERING OF LIGHT IN A HOMOGENEOUS LAYER AND MULTIPLE BOUNCING AT ITS NON-LAMBERTIAN BOTTOM

Radiative transfer theories are usually used to calculate light transm itted and reflected on a layer of homogeneous medium. But if the layer has limited optical thickness and a non-Lambertian lower bound, the m ultiple bouncing between the layer and the lower bound will be coupled with the multiple scattering within the layer, thus making the soluti on very complicated. Through atmospheric correction for EOS MODIS/MISR BRDF product and modeling shortwave absorption of snow under forest c anopies, it is found that two complicated and apparently different cas es can be handled similarly by decoupling the problem into two simpler and more basic formulations, i.e. analytical approximations of path s cattering (i.e. assuming a perfect absorbing lower bound); and the mul tiple bouncing between the layer and its non-Lambertian lower bound.