Polarimetric Observables Visualize Depolaring Targets in Sea-Surface Environments

In this letter, we propose to study and visualize targets in sea-surface environments using polarimetric observables. To do so, we simulated a sea-surface condition to obtain corresponding results. In particular, a photon-tracking theoretical model is developed to represent the interaction between photons and targets in complex marine environments (changing number density and size distribution of water droplets and bubbles). Moreover, with the assistance of Monte Carlo algorithm, the developed photon-tracking model is able to illustrate the polarimetric characteristics in the detectors with high accuracy. To comprehensively analyze the obtained polarimetric characteristics of depolarizing samples changing with the marine environment, the different polarimetric observables are employed to characterize the depolarizing samples from a variety of perspectives, as well as the corresponding images by different polarimetric observables are illustrated. The relevant results demonstrate the proposed method can analyze the physical characteristics and provide a significant way to ocean target detection.