Polarized light transmission in atmospheric aerosol consisting of mixed particle types

Atmospheric aerosol is closely related to people’s daily life and scientific research activities, especially the frequent haze and dust weather in recent years, which has seriously affected social activities and scientific researches, for example, atmospheric communication. To overcome the shortcomings of traditional Monte Carlo algorithm of light scattering transmission, our study proposes a scattering medium model made of different atmospheric aerosol particles. Based on this model, Monte Carlo algorithm is improved and the polarized light transmission in atmospheric aerosol is simulated by incorporating T-matrix method. Through simulation experiments, the polarization characteristics of polarized light passing through the atmospheric aerosol made of different numbers and types of particles are studied. The results show that the polarization-preserving ability of circularly polarized light is obviously better than that of linearly polarized light, and different particle types and different proportion ratios have great influence on polarization-preserving ability. The medium model and the improved algorithm can help the theoretical analysis not only on the polarization imaging and target detection, but also on the free space optical communication under the realistic condition that the atmospheric aerosol exists.