[1] As part of the Radiance in a Dynamic Ocean (RaDyO) program, we have developed a numerical model for efficiently simulating the polarized light field under highly dynamic ocean surfaces. Combining the advantages of the three-dimensional Monte Carlo and matrix operator methods, this hybrid model has proven to be computationally effective for simulations involving a dynamic air-sea interface. Given water optical properties and ocean surface wave slopes obtained from RaDyO field measurements, model-simulated radiance and polarization fields under a dynamic surface are found to be qualitatively comparable to their counterparts from field measurements and should be quantitatively comparable if the light field measurement and the wave slope/water optical property measurements are appropriately collocated and synchronized. This model serves as a bridge to connect field measurements of water optical properties, wave slopes and polarized light fields. It can also be used as a powerful yet convenient tool to predict the temporal underwater polarized radiance in a real-world situation. When appropriate surface measurements are available, model simulation is shown to reveal more dynamic features in the underwater light field than direct measurements.

[1] The spectral polarized radiance distribution provides the most complete description of the light field that can be measured. However, this is a very difficult parameter to measure, particularly near the surface, because of its large dynamic range, changes in the skylight illumination, and waves at the air-sea interface. To measure the Stokes vector of the downwelling light field, which contains the polarization information, requires the combination of four images acquired simultaneously. To achieve this, we used the downwelling polarized radiance distribution camera system (DPOL) during the Radiance in a Dynamic Ocean (RaDyO) program Santa Barbara Channel and Hawaiian experiments. DPOL consists of four fisheye lenses and a spectral filter changer that allow us to capture the downwelling hemisphere of the polarized radiance distribution at seven wavelengths. Our measurements show that very near the surface, for clear sky conditions, the dominant source of polarization is the refracted sky light. As one progresses in the water column the polarization due to light scattering by the water increases and polarization due to light scattering in the water becomes dominant.Citation: Bhandari, P., K. J. Voss, L. Logan, and M. Twardowski (2011), The variation of the polarized downwelling radiance distribution with depth in the coastal and clear ocean,

Original[1] Optical variability occurs in the near-surface and upper ocean on very short time and space scales (e.g., milliseconds and millimeters and less) as well as greater scales. This variability is caused by solar, meteorological, and other physical forcing as well as biological and chemical processes that affect optical properties and their distributions, which in turn control the propagation of light across the air-sea interface and within the

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