TREATMENT OF POLARIZATION IN LASER REMOTE-SENSING OF OCEAN WATER

We review existing experimental data and methods for calculating the M ueller matrix of ocean water for use as input in a simulation model ap plicable to laser remote sensing. Calculations of the Mueller matrix a re made for scattering media of different refractive indices, shapes, and size distributions. Dependencies of the backscattering depolarizat ion ratio as a function of the particle refractive index are presented , and we demonstrate the potential importance of polarization in bathy metric sensing. (C) 1998 Optical Society of America.