Reflection of Polarized Light in Ice-Water Mixed Clouds

Abstract

Based on the Mie theory, the single scattering properties (single-scattering albedo, asymmetry parameter, and single scattering phase matrix) of clouds consisting of pure water, pure ice spheres and concentric water-ice spheres are computed, respectively. The intensity and polarization of sunlight reflected by ice-water mixed clouds are studied with the adding-doubling method. The results of computations indicate that the polarization is more sensitive than the intensity to clouds microstructure in the near infrared regions, such as particle phase, and the sensitivity is especially high near the 3.3 μm wavelength region. This wavelength region can therefore be used to derive information about ice-water mixed clouds from polarimetric observations.