Polarized Views Of The Earth From Orbital Altitude

Kinsell L. Coulson; Victor S. Whitehead; Charles Campbell

doi:10.1117/12.964213

7 August 1986 Polarized Views Of The Earth From Orbital Altitude

Kinsell L. Coulson, Victor S. Whitehead, Charles Campbell

Proceedings Volume 0637, Ocean Optics VIII; (1986) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.964213
Event: 1986 Technical Symposium Southeast, 1986, Orlando, United States

Abstract

By means of a pair of boresighted and synchronized cameras fitted with orthogonally oriented polarizing filters and carried aboard the Space Shuttle, a large number of polarized images of the earth's surface have been obtained from orbital altitude. Selected pairs of images, both in color and in black and white, have been digitized and computer processed to yield analogous images in each of the three Stokes parameters necessary for characterizing the state of linear polarization of the emergent light. Many of the images show surface properties more distinctly in degree and plane of polarization than in simple intensity alone. However, the maximum information content as well as noise suppression and minimization of atmospheric interference, is achieved by proper combinations of the Stokes parameters. It is believed that these are first, and certainly the most extensive, set of polarized images of the earth ever obtained from space.

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Kinsell L. Coulson, Victor S. Whitehead, and Charles Campbell "Polarized Views Of The Earth From Orbital Altitude", Proc. SPIE 0637, Ocean Optics VIII, (7 August 1986); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.964213

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