Polarization adds powerful, often underutilised information to satellite remote sensing. This book is a comprehensive, end-to-end guide to retrieving both cloud and aerosol properties from polarimetric observations. Unique in unifying key training across scattering modeling, aerosol retrieval, cloud microphysics, and polarimetric observations, this foundational textbook prepares readers in the use of a cutting-edge technique that is increasingly deployed for climate missions by NASA and other space agencies. The book begins with the basics of polarization, building into scattering theory and particle optics. Readers are guided through polarized radiative transfer, surface boundary conditions over ocean and land, and the inverse methods connecting measurements to geophysical properties. Dedicated chapters explore the retrieval of cloud phases and microphysics, aerosol optical depth, particle size, and refractive index. Suitable as a graduate textbook or a reference for researchers, this volume will allow readers to emerge ready to work directly with polarimetric satellite data.
