Polarimetric Remote Sensing

Dr. Zhibo Zhang received the B.S. (Atmospheric Sciences) from the Nanjing University, Nanjing China and the M.S. and Ph.D. degree in Atmospheric Sciences from Texas A&M University, College Station, TX. He is currently a Research Associate at Goddard Earth Science and Technology Center and member of the MODIS cloud remote sensing team at Goddard Space Flight Center. His research interests cover the areas of remote sensing and radiative transfer. He has been actively conducting research in the remote sensing of cloud properties from space-borne sensors, like the MODIS. Dr. Steven Platnick received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Duke University and the University of California, Berkeley, respectively. After working for Hewlett-Packard for six years in microwave instrumentation design, he obtained a PhD in Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Arizona, specializing in remote sensing. Now at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, he is a currently the Senior Project Scientist for NASA's Earth Observing System. He is a member of the MODIS Atmosphere Science Team working on operational cloud optical and microphysical products. Professor Ping Yang received the B.S. (theoretical physics) and M.S. (atmospheric physics) degrees from Lanzhou University and Lanzhou Institute of Plateau Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, China and the Ph.D. degree in meteorology from the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA. He is currently professor and the holder of the David Bullock Harris Chair in Geosciences, the Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA. His research interests cover the areas of remote sensing and radiative transfer. He has been actively conducting research in the modeling of the optical and radiative properties of clouds and aerosols, in particular, cirrus clouds, and their applications to space-borne and ground-based remote sensing. The U.S. National Science Foundation CAREER award in 2003, and the Dean's Distinguished Achievement Award for Faculty Research, College of Geosciences, Texas A&M University in 2004. He is a member of the MODIS Science Team. He has been a fellow of the Optical Society of America (OSA) since 2010. Dr. Bryan A. Baum received a B.S. (Chemical Engineering) in 1978 from Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, a M.S. (Chemical Engineering) from the University of Colorado in Boulder, CO, and a Ph.D. (Atmospheric Sciences) from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, GA. He is an associate scientist at the Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Prior to joining SSEC, he was a senior scientist at the NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, VA. He is a member of the NASA Atmosphere and Sounder Science Teams, and is also involved with future missions such as GLORY, NPP (NPOESS Preparatory Platform), and JPSS (Joint Polar Satellite System). Dr. Baum has served on three panels for the American Meteorological Society: cloud physics, atmospheric radiation, and artificial intelligence applications to environmental sciences. Dr. Jérôme Riedi received the M.S. (Lasers, Molecules and Atmospheric Radiation) and the Ph.D. degree in Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Lille, France. His doctoral research included the use of multiangle and polarization measurements from POLDER/ADEOS1 for determination of clouds microphysical properties. After a postdoctoral experience at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center where he was involved in development and assessment of the MODIS cloud products, Dr. Riedi took, in 2003, a position as associate professor at the Laboratoire d'Optique Atmosphérique, University of Lille. Since then, he has been conducting research on clouds and aerosols properties retrieval with a special emphasis on use of polarization and development of multi sensor approach for clouds analysis. As part of these activities, he is member of the POLDER, GLORY and GCOM-SGLI science teams.

OVERVIEW
Climatic Effects of Clouds and Aerosols
Physical and Optical Properties of Clouds and Aerosols
Information Content in Remote Sensing

BASIC CONCEPTS AND DEFINITIONS
Polarization Parameters
Polarimetric Instruments and Measurements

POLARIZATION OF THE SCATTERING BY CLOUD AND AEROSOL PARTICLES
Single Scattering and Bulk Scattering Properties
Scattering Properties of Cloud Particles
Scattering Properties of Aerosols
Rayleigh Scattering

SOURCES AND BOUNDARY CONDITIONS
Sources
The Sun
Active Sensors
Boundary Conditions
Ocean Surface
Land Surface

TRANSFER OF POLARIZED RADIATION IN THE ATMOSPHERE
Basic Equations
Methods for Solving Polarized Radiative Transfer Equation
Publicly available Codes

REMOTE SENSING OF CLOUD PROPERTIES FROM POLARIMETRIC MEASUREMENTS
Cloud Thermal Dynamic Phase
Cloud Particle effective Radius
Ice Cloud Particle Shapes

REMOTE SENSING OF AEROSOL PROPERTIES FROM POLARIMETRIC MEASUREMENTS
Aerosol Optical Depth
Aerosol single Scattering Albedo and Asymmetry Parameter
Aerosol Size Distribution