A 3-D Mesoscopic Modeling for Polarized Radiative Transfer: Application to Remote Sensing of Atmospheric Systems

The 3-D polarized radiative transfer becomes increasingly important for remote sensing applications. In this study, we propose a 3-D mesoscopic modeling for polarized radiative transfer in atmospheric systems based on the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM). To accurately capture the complex geometries of 3-D inhomogeneous atmospheres, the proposed LB model is constructed on unstructured grids. The accuracy of the proposed unstructured LB model is validated through comparison with benchmark solutions. Furthermore, this study employs the proposed unstructured LB model to investigate the influence of different infrared incident wavelengths and atmospheric characteristics on polarized radiative transfer. The results demonstrate that the unstructured LB model accurately captures the wavelength-dependent variations of the Stokes parameters in both forward and backward scattering processes, highlighting its exceptional capability in handling complex atmospheric structures and multiple optical components that influence polarized light. This model provides a 3-D mesoscopic tool for remote sensing, particularly for interpreting polarized signals from inhomogeneous atmospheric systems.