Characteristics of the neutral points of atmospheric polarization under single scattering conditions

Guixia Guan, Lei Yan*, Jiabin Chen, Taixia Wu

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The position and distribution of polarization neutral points in the atmosphere have been found to be sensitive indicators of the amount and type of atmospheric turbidity. It was felt that study of these polarization neutral points could lead to a method to compensate for the impact of the scattering of atmospheric radiation on surface feature identification. This would improve the accuracy of surface feature identification in remote sensing. In this paper, using the atmospheric radiation transfer equation, distributions of degrees of light polarization and the polarization neutral points were calculated for a single scattering atmosphere. Actual polarization conditions of sunlight were then observed using full sky imaging polarimetry. The results showed that the distribution of the degree of light polarization in the sky was the same as the distribution of the degrees of polarization of unit volume atmosphere. The neutral point of atmospheric polarization changes within a range of approximately 15°~25° away from the anti-solar point and the degree of polarization is regularly distributed around the polarization neutral point.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)503-506
Number of pages4
JournalHarbin Gongcheng Daxue Xuebao/Journal of Harbin Engineering University
Volume31
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2010

Keywords

  • Atmosphere
  • Polarization neutral point
  • Remote sensing polarization
  • Surface feature identification

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Guan, G., Yan, L., Chen, J., & Wu, T. (2010). Characteristics of the neutral points of atmospheric polarization under single scattering conditions. Harbin Gongcheng Daxue Xuebao/Journal of Harbin Engineering University, 31(4), 503-506. https://doi.org/10.3969/j.issn.1006-7043.2010.04.016