Open AccessEffects of surface reflectance on skylight polarization measurements at the Mauna Loa Observatory
Author(s) -
Andrew R. Dahlberg,
Nathan J. Pust,
Joseph A. Shaw
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.19.016008
Subject(s) - skylight , polarimeter , radiance , remote sensing , sky , polarization (electrochemistry) , optics , observatory , diffuse sky radiation , polarimetry , environmental science , geostationary operational environmental satellite , radiometer , atmospheric optics , degree of polarization , satellite , physics , geology , meteorology , geography , astronomy , scattering , chemistry , archaeology
An all-sky imaging polarimeter was deployed in summer 2008 to the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii to study clear-sky atmospheric skylight polarization. The imager operates in five wavebands in the visible and near infrared spectrum and has a fisheye lens for all-sky viewing. This paper describes the deployment and presents comparisons of the degree of skylight polarization observed to similar data observed by Coulson with a principal-plane scanning polarimeter in the late 1970s. In general, the results compared favorably to those of Coulson. In addition, we present quantitative results correlating a variation of the maximum degree of polarization over a range of 70-85% to fluctuation in underlying surface reflectance and upwelling radiance data from the GOES satellite.