Apparent contrast of an atmosphere-ocean system with an oil polluted sea surface

To obtain the optical thickness of the ocean and detect the pollution of the sea surface remotely by satellite, the intensity of radiation from the model atmosphere-ocean is calculated in terms of the superposition method. Reflection and refraction at the sea surface are taken into account as well as the multiple scattering and absorption in both atmosphere and ocean. It is shown that the visibility of oil polluted ocean is higher than that of uncontaminated ocean, and based on this enhancement of the visibility (or apparent contrast of oil slicks), sea pollution could be detected from space.