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Multiple scattering is an inevitable effect in spaceborne oceanic lidar because of the large footprint size and the high optical density of seawater. The effective attenuation coefficient klidar in oceanic lidar equation, which indicates the influence of the multiple scattering effect on the formation of lidar returns, is an important parameter in the retrieval of inherent optical properties (IOPs) of seawater. In this paper, the nonlinearity of klidar and the relationships between klidar and the IOPs of seawater are investigated by solving the radiative transfer equation with an improved semianalytic Monte Carlo model. klidar is found to decrease exponentially with the increase of depth in homogeneous waters. klidar is given as an exponential function of depth and IOPs of seawater. The results in this paper can help to have a better understanding of the multiple scattering effect of spaceborne lidar and improve the retrieval accuracy of the IOPs of seawater using spaceborne lidar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Study on the upper ocean is of great significance to the global climate change and carbon cycle. Lidar can be used to effectively detect depth-resolved optical properties of the ocean. However, both theory and experiment of oceanic lidar are limited by complex multiple scattering. Several progresses by Zhejiang University will be illustrated in this paper: 1) a polarized lidar system was developed, and a Monte Carlo model and a radiative transfer model were established (Zhou, et al. remote sensing, 2019; Zhou, et al. Journal of remote sensing, 2019; Xu, et al. and Liu, et al. Journal of remote sensing, 2019); 2) Cross validations are demonstrated to verify the availability of the lidar system and models (Liu, et al. IEEE TGRS, 2019); 3) phase function effects on backscatter and attenuation are studied considering multiple scattering, respectively (Liu, et al. Optics Express, 2019). Oceanic lidar is proven to have great potential in marine studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]