Radiative transfer models are key tools in the remote sensing and parameterization of climate radiative forcing

while polarized radiative transfer models can provide more accurate insights into the radiation processes in the earth–atmosphere system. PolRadtran/RT3 （Polarized Radiative Transfer

based on the adding-doubling method）

SOSVRT （Vector Radiative Transfer

based on successive order of scattering）

and VDISORT （Vector DIScrete Ordinate Radiative Transfer

a polarized version of DISORT based on the inverse of matrix method）

are three of the most common radiative transfer models

each with polarization based on different physical principles. A comparison of their accuracy and efficiency reveals that SOSVRT is the most efficient

with the time consumed remaining almost invariable with the increase of stream numbers

but increasing with the optical depth of the layered atmosphere. For example

the time consumed for an optical depth of 1.0 was found to be two times that for an optical depth of 0.5 for the Mie scattering atmosphere. The efficiencies of RT3 and VDISORT in modeling polariza- tion with a large stream number were found to be low. For example

under the Rayleigh scattering atmosphere at 400nm and a stream number of 40

the time consumed was 23 times and 7 times as much as that of SOSVRT

respectively. The computation time for the two models was found not to be sensitive to the optical depth

but increased greatly with the increase in stream number. All three models were found to be of the same order of accuracy

but VDISORT showed a fluctuating result for simula- tions with large streams.