International Polarized Radiative Transfer

In this case we include the US standard atmosphere, the corresponding Rayleigh scattering optical thickness and molecular absorption profiles are provided at 450 nm. Below we add a water surface described by a bidirectional reflectance distribution function including the specular reflection.

Setup:

• model atmosphere US-standard, scattering optical thickness provided in file tau_rayleigh_450nm_usstd.dat, molecular absorption optical thicknes in tau_absorption_450nm_usstd.dat. The file includes 2 columns where the first is the altitude of the layer boundaries in km, and the second is the layer optical thickness (e.g. the value for 0 km corresponds to the optical thickness for the layer from 0 to 1 km).
• The surface is described by the ocean reflectance matrix using Mishchenko's code ocean.shadow.f (uses anti-clockwise convention for azimuth angle!)
• wind speed: 5 m/s
• wavelength: 450 nm
• Rayleigh depolarization factor: 0.03
• surface albedo: 0
• Earth radius: 6371 km

• Observer at 3.0e8 km distance from center of Earth at (lan, lon)=(0°, 0°)
• Field of view includes complete planet:
• zenith angles: vza: -1.2° - +1.2°, increment 0.04°
• azimuth angles: vaa: -1.2° - +1.2°, increment 0.04°
• Here the angles refer to the connection line between Earth center and observer.
• Sun position:
• latitude: lat: 0°
• longitudes: lon: 50°, 90°, 110°, 130°
• The longitude of the sun position corresponds to the phase angle.