Piero BRUSCAGLIONI, Andrea ISMAELLI, Giovanni ZACCANTI, Marco GAI and Massimo GURIOLI

Department of Physics, University of Florence, Via Santa Marta 3 50139 Florence, Italy

(Received September 26, 1994; Accepted May 16, 1995)

The main features of a Monte Carlo code developed to deal with polarization of lidar returns from water clouds in multiple scattering regime are described. The paper presents an example of results pertaining to a stratified cloud structure, and a series of comparisons of calculation results with measurements carried out in the laboratory. For double scattering a comparison of Monte Carlo results with those of an analytical formula is also given.

Key words : multiple scattering, polarization, clouds, Monte Carlo, lidar, laboratory models