By invoking ideas about the distribution of the optical paths of partial components

of the scattered field,

we obtain an expression for estimating the degree of residual polarization of light
that is incoherently backscattered
from a disordered multiply scattering semi-infinite medium illuminated by linearly
polarized light.
In the backscattering regime, the depolarization length of the linearly polarized
light in the disordered medium
becomes smaller with the passage from the isotropic to anisotropic scattering.
Experiments with model media featuring
substantially anisotropic scattering (the anisotropy parameter of 0.90 ≤ g ≤ 0.95)
demonstrated that for
backscattering of linearly polarized light, the depolarization length is close to
the transport length of the
scattering medium.

The effect of preservation of the residual polarization of backscattered light in

the case of multiply scattered
disordered media illumination by a linearly polarized plane wave is examined using
the path-integral approach and
Monte Carlo simulation. Disordered ensembles of non-interacting dielectric
particles are considered as the model of
scattering media. The influence of the anisotropy parameter of the scattering
system on the degree of residual
polarization is analysed. Experimental results obtained for various scattering
systems at different wavelengths of
illuminating light are in satisfactory agreement with the results of theoretical
analysis and Monte Carlo simulation.
The dependence of statistical properties of the polarization states of
backscattered field partial components,
such as probability distributions of ellipticity, on the anisotropy parameter is
studied.

Like A Vibration

We can think of light as a vibration, something like a vibration traveling along a

stretched rope.
Light that vibrates in some clearly defined direction is said to be polarized.

The blue light of the sky is polarized. When the sun is low to your left or right,
as it is in this experiment,
the blue light of the sky right in front of you is polarized vertically; the
vibrations are up and down.

Vertical Vs Horizontal

But the lake doesn't reflect that light very well. Horizontal surfaces in general
don't reflect vertically polarized light very well.
You see a dark patch in the lake 4 feet in front of you because, at that angle, the
lake doesn't get much light it can reflect.

The blue sky supplies vertically polarized light; the lake, being horizontal,
can't reflect it and that's why there's a mysterious dark patch in the reflection
of the sky.