Polarimetric remote sensing of structures in geophysical media is studied in this paper based on their symmetry properties. Orientations of spheroidal scatterers described by spherical, uniform, planophile, plagiothile, erectophile, and extremophile distributions are considered to derive their polarimetric backscattering characteristics. These distributions can be identified from the observed scattering coefficients by comparison with theoretical symmetry calculations. A new parameter is defined to study scattering structures in geophysical media. Experimental observations from polarimetric data acquired by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory airborne synthetic aperture radar over forests, sea ice, and sea surface are presented to illustrate the use of symmetry properties. For forests, the coniferous forest in Mount Shasta area and mixed forests near Presque Isle show evidence of the centrical symmetry at C band. In sea ice from the Beaufort Sea, multiyear sea ice has a cross-polarized ratio e close to e0, calculated from symmetry, due to the randomness in the scattering structure. For first-year sea ice, e is much smaller than e0 as a result of preferential alignment of the columnar structure of the ice. From polarimetric data of a sea surface in the Bering sea, it is observed that e and e0 are increasing with incident angle and e is greater than e0 at L band because of the directional feature of sea surface waves. Use of symmetry properties of geophysical media for polarimetric radar calibration is also suggested. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1993