Understanding the optical properties of light reflected from snow surfaces is fundamental for remote sensing-based characterizations of snow properties and quantification of radiative transfer in the atmosphere–earth system. In theory,… Click to show full abstract
Understanding the optical properties of light reflected from snow surfaces is fundamental for remote sensing-based characterizations of snow properties and quantification of radiative transfer in the atmosphere–earth system. In theory, both intensity and polarization are required for describing the optical properties of light reflected from snow. However, thus far, a few studies have focused on the polarimetric properties of snow. In this study, we measured both multiangular photometric and polarimetric (based on the Stokes parameters) hyperspectral field results of snow with different properties (grain size, pollution levels, and microscopic surface roughness). By considering the absorption ratio of the polarizer, the intensity defined by photometric results [bidirectional reflectance factor (BRF) and hemispherical directional reflectance factor (HDRF)] was first confirmed to be similar to those derived from polarimetric measurements [
               
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