Expand this Topic clickable element to expand a topic
Skip to content
Optica Publishing Group

Genesis and Evolution of the use of Polarization in Remote Sensing of Atmospheres and Oceans

Open Access Open Access

Abstract

We will begin the presentation with a brief history of the genesis and evolution of the use of polarization as a tool for navigation by humans, insects, and many marine organisms. Was it the Vikings (circa 700) or Batholinus in 1669 who first discovered Iceland Spar which played a dominant role in the discovery of polarization due to its birefringent properties? We will then dispel many of the myths and describe the actual role played by many of the “Giants” of optics such as Newton (Opticks-1704), Huygens (Traité de la Lumiere, 1690), Young, Brewster (best known for his invention of the kaleidoscope), Arago, Biot, and Fresnel. We will next present all the basic definitions and terminologies needed to discuss the mathematical description of polarization. We will introduce the four component Stokes vector (formally it’s not a vector) and the 4×4 matrix which transforms it; namely, the Mueller matrix. The enormous importance of the Mueller matrix is that it gives all the information one can obtain from light that is elastically scattered from either a single particle or a system of particles. Examples will be shown on how polarization reveals many new and exciting details of objects that can’t be seen by just looking at the radiance (first component of the Stokes vector and what the human eye perceives) from the object. Applications will be presented showing the efficacy of polarization techniques in detecting camouflaged objects in the ocean as well as its usefulness in probing cloud and aerosol optical properties in the atmosphere. The latest exciting findings on the use of both linear and circular polarization by cephalopods (includes octopuses and squids) and stomatopods (in particular the mantis shrimp) in their quest for survival will also be presented.

© 2009 Optical Society of America

PDF Article
More Like This
Remote sensing of cloud and Aerosol over cloud from Multi-viewing Polarized Measurements

Laurent C. Labonnote, Jerome Riedi, Fabien Waquet, and
HWB2 Hyperspectral Imaging and Sensing of the Environment (HISE) 2009

Remote sensing of land, ocean, atmosphere with MODIS

W. Menzel
OMA2 Optical Remote Sensing (HISE) 2001

Polarized radiance distribution measurements of skylight for passive remote sensing of aerosol optical properties

Kenneth Voss and Yi Liu
OTuB.4 Optical Remote Sensing of the Atmosphere (ORS) 1997

Select as filters


Select Topics Cancel
© Copyright 2024 | Optica Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved