Radiative transfer calculations for characterizing obscured surfaces using time-dependent backscattered pulses
Abstract
Numerical calculations for estimating the albedo of a surface and its distance behind an obscuring multiple-scattering atmosphere are performed for the idealized case of an instantaneous pulse uniformly illuminating a plane-geometry atmosphere of known properties. This inverse problem is complicated by the fact that the backscattered irradiance is broadened in time because of purely geometric effects arising from the geometry considered; the broadening increases with an increasing thickness of the obscuring medium and if the medium scatters in a more isotropic manner, such as with Rayleigh scattering. Isocline maps of different observables suggest that graphical inversion maps might be useful for some applications of this type.
- Publication:
-
Applied Optics
- Pub Date:
- February 1989
- DOI:
- 10.1364/AO.28.000544
- Bibcode:
- 1989ApOpt..28..544D
- Keywords:
-
- Albedo;
- Atmospheric Scattering;
- Backscattering;
- Earth Surface;
- Radiative Transfer;
- Remote Sensing;
- Aerosols;
- Irradiance;
- Refractivity;
- Optics;
- RADIATIVE TRANSFER;
- REMOTE SENSING;
- IMAGING;
- SCATTERING: MULTIPLE;
- INVERSE PROBLEMS