Transport of Polarized Infrared Signals Through the Terrestrial Atmosphere

摘要

Both the Mie scattering and polarimetric transport models indicate that, in the LWIR, the atmospheric effect on the transport of right-hand circularly polarized signals and left-hand circularly polarized signals is identical. In the LWIR, the observed normalized circular polarization anisotropy, S3/SO, of a signal should not require any atmospheric corrections. Because natural LWIR light in not circularly polarized, only an active system will be able to exploit this finding. Both the Mie scattering and polarimetric transport models indicate that, in the LWIR, the atmospheric effect on the transport of the two orthogonal components of linearly polarized signals should be significantly different. In the LWIR both the observed degree of lineal polarization and the observed normalized linear polarization anisotropy Si/SO of a signal should require atmospheric corrections.