Lidar investigations of hydrosols: notes on the determination of scattering matrix elements

The feasibility of lidar remote sensing of marine particulate matter is discussed. An evaluation of the elements of the scattering matrix requires a bistatic configuration of the instrument. The influence of the rough water surface transmission on the lidar signal is investigated. It is shown that, when using circular polarized laser light, two signals can be obtained without interference of the surface waves. These signals render characteristic signatures concerning the nature of hydrosols.