A three-dimensional radiative transfer model for shallow water environments.

A geometric optical model for three-dimensional radiative transfer capable of handling arbitrary arrangements of surfaces within anisotropic scattering media is described. The model operates by discretizing surfaces and volumes into patches and voxels and establishing the radiative transfer relationship between every pair of elements. In a plane-parallel configuration results for directional radiance agree closely with the numerical integration invariant imbedded method. Model accuracy for two examples incorporating surface water waves and complex benthic structures were assessed by conservation of energy, errors were less than 1%. Potential applications in remote sensing or photobiological studies of structurally complex benthos in shallow water environments are illustrated.