In this study

we try to improve the understanding of polarization of signal reflected by water surface and within water body for which an accurate knowledge is necessary in remote sensing applications.Polarized characteristics of the reflected light above water surface and the scattered light in water body together with their applications in ocean color remote sensing are reviewed.Elimination of the sunglint and skyglint

and inversion methods of polarized ocean color remote sensing are summarized in detail.polarization of sunglint reflected by the sea surface is routinely used to extract information in remote sensing studies

such as oil spill detection and remote sensing of sea state.The first and foremost thing is to eliminate reflected light from water surface radiance for remote sensing of subsurface material. The scope and limitations of the efficiency of Brewster’s angle technique in eliminating reflected light from water surface radiance is discussed for both flat and wind roughened sea surface.Several key problems are pointed out

including atmospheric polarization correction

vector radiance transfer calculation

calibration of polarization sensitivity of sensor and polarization characteristics of the incident source above water surface

the polarization of roughened airwater surface and water body.Some suggestions are put forward to improve the research of polarization information in ocean optics and ocean color remote sensing

such as development of predictive numerical models for polarized underwater radiance distribution and quantification of the relationship of Mueller matrix and the concentration of water quality parameters.