A new Monte Carlo atmospheric radiative transfer model is presented which is designed to support the interpretation of UV/vis/near-IR spectroscopic measurements of scattered Sun light in the atmosphere. The integro differential equation describing the underlying transport process and its formal solution are discussed. A stochastic approach to solve the differential equation, the Monte Carlo method, is deduced and its application to the formal solution is demonstrated. It is shown how model photon trajectories of the resulting ray tracing algorithm are used to estimate functionals of the radiation field such as radiances, actinic fluxes and light path integrals. In addition, Jacobians of the former quantities with respect to optical parameters of the atmosphere are analyzed. Model output quantities are validated against measurements, by self-consistency tests and through inter comparisons with other radiative transfer models. ► Deduction of the Monte Carlo raytracing method from the RTE. ► Estimation of Jacobians using a backward trajectory ensemble. ► Validation of 3D features and Jacobians of a Monte Carlo RTM.