ABSTRACT
In recent years there has been increasing interest in the use of polarization for imaging objects in a cluttered environment. Examples are optical imaging through clouds, optical detection of objects in a biological medium, and microwave detection of objects in clutter. We extend previous studies of continuous-wave scattering to pulse-polarization scattering in discrete scatterers. We solve the time-dependent vector radiative transfer equation for a plane-parallel medium by using Mie scattering and the discrete ordinates method. The time-dependent degree of polarization and cross-polarization discrimination are calculated and verify the advantages of circular over linear polarization in maintaining greater copolarized components rather than cross-polarized components.
