Abstract. Reflected solar radiance from the Earth–atmosphere system is polarized. Radiance measurements can be affected by the reflected light's state of polarization if the radiometric sensor is sensitive to the polarization of observed light. To enable the Climate Absolute Radiance and Refractivity Observatory (CLARREO) mission for inter-calibration of the polarization-sensitive imagers, such as the MODIS, the polarization state of the reflected solar light must be known with sufficient accuracy. For this purpose, the polarized solar radiation from the ocean–atmosphere system is studied with an adding-doubling radiative transfer model (ADRTM). The Cox-and-Munk ocean wave slope distribution model is used in calculation of the reflection matrix of a wind-ruffled ocean surface. An empirical foam spectral reflectance model and an empirical spectral reflectance model for water volume below the surface are integrated in the ocean surface model. Solar reflectance from the ADRTM is compared with that from the discrete-ordinate radiative transfer (DISORT) model. Sensitivity studies for reflected solar radiation are conducted for various ocean-surface and atmospheric conditions for the stratification of polarization distribution models (PDMs), which are to be used in the inter-calibration of the polarization-sensitive imager measurements with the CLARREO data. This modeling provides a reliable approach for making the spectral CLARREO PDMs over the broad solar spectra, which cannot be achieved by empirical PDMs based on the analysis of the data from polarimetric sensors.
OSOAA: a vector radiative transfer model of coupled atmosphere-ocean system for a rough sea surface application to the estimates of the directional variations of the water leaving reflectance to better process multi-angular satellite sensors data over the ocean