Abstract
Polarimetric imaging cameras require polarimetric calibration to accurately estimate the incident Stokes vector of incoming radiation. This calibration establishes a relationship between changes in the sensor signal and incident Stokes vector. In the standard procedure, an imager is presented with a set of input Stokes vectors with two different radiance values. In the long-wavelength infrared (LWIR) and mid-wavelength infrared bands, blackbodies with different temperatures are used for each set of Stokes vectors. The radiometric offset is subtracted, and standard radiometric or nonuniformity correction procedures are performed in a separate step. This paper proposes an alternative all-in-one approach that combines radiometric calibration, nonuniformity correction, and polarimetric calibration. The standard and proposed methods are compared for a division-of-time LWIR polarimeter. The proposed calibration method achieves an RMS error of 0.34% compared with the conventional technique’s error of 0.83%, yielding a factor of 2.4 improvement in the reconstructed accuracy of a linear Stokes vector; in addition, it is less time-consuming and less prone to ambient temperature fluctuations than the typical two-point method. The method also accounts for beam wander and narcissus effects and enables simple, straightforward polarimetric measurement.
© 2021 Optical Society of America
Full Article | PDF ArticleMore Like This
Jianguo Yang, Hao Cui, Li Li, Weiqi Jin, and Zunyi Sun
Appl. Opt. 62(35) 9215-9227 (2023)
Slawomir Gogler, Grzegorz Bieszczad, and Jacek Swiderski
Appl. Opt. 59(24) 7268-7278 (2020)
Michael W. Kudenov, Larry Pezzaniti, Eustace L. Dereniak, and Grant R. Gerhart
Opt. Express 16(18) 13720-13737 (2008)