This book is aimed at the description of modern progress in remote sensing, radiative transfer, and polarimetry. Also the optical characteristics of matter surfaces including their color are studied. The primary audience for the work are the postgraduate students and also scientists actively involved in the respective areas of research. 

Alexander A. Kokhanovsky graduated from the Physical Department of the Belarussian State University, Minsk, Belarus, in 1983. He obtained a Ph.D. degree in optical sciences from the Institute of Physics, National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Minsk, Belarus, in 1991. His Ph.D. work was devoted to the development of analytical approximations for the radiative transfer characteristics of atmospheric aerosols and whitecaps. His habilitation work (Main Geophysical Observatory, St. Petersburg, Russia, 2011) was aimed at cloud and snow remote sensing from space. He has worked at several scientific research centers, such as the Institute of Physics (Minsk, Belarus, 1983–2004), Japanese Space Exploration Agency (Tokyo, Japan, 1996–1997), Clausthal Technical University (Clausthal-Zellerfeld, Germany, 1997–1998), Imperial College (London, UK, 1999–2000), University of Bremen (Bremen, Germany, 2001–2013), VITROCISET/TELESPAZIO Belgium and EUMETSAT (Darmstadt, Germany, 2013–2022). He is currently working at German Research Centre for Geosciences (Potsdam, Germany).