Abstract: The polarimetric received power optimization is an important study in radar polarimetry. Aiming at the deficiency of the present method for optimizing polarimetric received power, a new method is proposed for the partially polarized case based on the three step procedure. Similar to polarimetric received power optimization for the coherent case based on the three step procedure, the new method obtains the optimal polarization states of transmitted antennas firstly; and then calculates the optimal scattered waves with the scattering equation; finally gains the optimal received polarization states under the conditions of antenna mismatching or matching receiving for partially polarized wave. The key step of the proposed method is also the calculation of the optimal polarization of transmitted antennas. However, the proposed method is different from the present one in calculating the optimal polarization states of transmitted antennas. And the transmitted optimal polarization states for the partially polarized case is obtained by optimizing polarimetric received power under the conditions of antenna mismatching or matching receiving for partially polarized wave, not by optimizing the scattering wave power of random target. Another difference is the optimal polarization states corresponding to the maximum or minimum polarimetric received power can be obtained at the same time. Comparing with the present method for optimizing polarimetric received power, the new method is more applicable than the present method for optimizing polarimetric received power because the three step procedure is used to simplify the process of obtaining the optimal polarization states of random target. With the real polarimetric SAR data at the site of San Francisco, USA, we demonstrate that: a) the new method is validated; b) the new method is more efficient in calculating the optimal polarization states of the received and transmitted antennas than the present method.