Expand this Topic clickable element to expand a topic
Skip to content
Optica Publishing Group

Airlight-imposed errors for space-object polarimetric observations from the ground

Abstract

We discuss and characterize how polarimetric sensing is contaminated by various “airlight” phenomena, as well as unpolarized light from the target, when space objects are observed with a ground-based telescope. Estimates of the polarization state are limited by unpolarized target light regardless of sensor technology or estimator algorithm, and increased target brightness actually degrades estimation of the S1, S2, and S3 Stokes parameters if the added light is unpolarized. Unpolarized airlight in the field of view has an identical degrading effect. Atmospheric scattering can significantly polarize airlight, so airlight polarization must be calibrated and subtracted from the estimated target polarization. We derive an expression for the mean-square Stokes estimation error when noisy, biased estimates for the airlight polarization state are subtracted from noisy, biased estimates of the target polarization state; this expression shows that target and airlight Stokes estimation noise and bias generally sum in the ms estimation error for airlight-calibrated target Stokes. While SNR for the estimate of a given Stokes parameter increases with the magnitude of that parameter, estimation bias also appears to be correlated with magnitude. We note that when the linear Stokes reference is not arbitrary, requiring a rotational transformation of the estimated Stokes vector, the SNRs of the S1 and S2 estimates vary with the rotation angle. Finally, we show that measured data can be used in numerical calculations described here to approximate the errors associated with Stokes estimation, with or without airlight calibration.

© 2018 Optical Society of America

Full Article  |  PDF Article
More Like This
Estimation precision of full polarimetric parameters in the presence of additive and Poisson noise

Jun Dai, François Goudail, Matthieu Boffety, and Jun Gao
Opt. Express 26(26) 34081-34093 (2018)

Image dehazing using polarization effects of objects and airlight

Shuai Fang, XiuShan Xia, Xing Huo, and ChangWen Chen
Opt. Express 22(16) 19523-19537 (2014)

Fast and accurate polarimetric calibration of infrared imaging polarimetric sensors

Sławomir Gogler, Grzegorz Bieszczad, Jacek Swiderski, Krzysztof Firmanty, Jarosław Bareła, and Tadeusz Piątkowski
Appl. Opt. 60(27) 8499-8512 (2021)

Cited By

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Cited by links are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an Optica member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Login to access Optica Member Subscription

Figures (10)

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Figure files are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an Optica member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Login to access Optica Member Subscription

Equations (13)

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Equations are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an Optica member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Login to access Optica Member Subscription

Select as filters


Select Topics Cancel
© Copyright 2024 | Optica Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved