Martin KERSCHER, Wilhelm KRICHBAUMER, Masoud NOORMOHAMMADIAN and Ulrich G. OPPEL

Mathematisches Institut der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universit舩 MEchen, Theresienstr. 39, D-80333 MEchen, Germany

(Received October 12, 1994; Accepted May 9, 1995)

In this paper we shall present our stochastic model for the transfer of polarized light. We introduce the polarized phase function which is necessary for the exact determination of the scattering distribution for polarized light. Finally, we compare results of variance reduction Monte Carlo simulations based on that model with measurements taken with the DLR-Microlidar. This LIDAR is designed especially for cloud and fog measurements and has two fields of view with two polarization channels each; see W. Krichbaumer et al. (Opt. Laser Technol. 25 (1993) p. 283).

Key words : polarized LIDAR signals, multiple scattering, stochastic model, polarized phase function, Monte Carlo simulation