English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Free Plan

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

Context. Homochirality is a generic and unique property of life on Earth andis considered a universal and agnostic biosignature. Homochirality inducesfractional circular polarization in the incident light that it reflects.Because this circularly polarized light can be sensed remotely, it can be oneof the most compelling candidate biosignatures in life detection missions.While there are also other sources of circular polarization, these result inspectrally flat signals with lower magnitude. Additionally, circularpolarization can be a valuable tool in Earth remote sensing because thecircular polarization signal directly relates to vegetation physiology. Aims.While high-quality circular polarization measurements can be obtained in thelaboratory and under semi-static conditions in the field, there has been asignificant gap to more realistic remote sensing conditions. Methods. In thisstudy, we present sensitive circular spectropolarimetric measurements ofvarious landscape elements taken from a fast-moving helicopter. Results. Wedemonstrate that during flight, within mere seconds of measurements, we candifferentiate (S/N>5) between grass fields, forests, and abiotic urban areas.Importantly, we show that with only nonzero circular polarization as adiscriminant, photosynthetic organisms can even be measured in lakes.Conclusions. Circular spectropolarimetry can be a powerful technique to detectlife beyond Earth, and we emphasize the potential of utilizing circularspectropolarimetry as a remote sensing tool to characterize and monitor indetail the vegetation physiology and terrain features of Earth itself.

Biosignatures of the Earth I. Airborne spectropolarimetric detection of photosynthetic life