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Planets, Stars and Stellar Systems pp 175–221Cite as

Astronomical Polarimetry: Polarized Views of Stars and Planets

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Abstract

Polarization is a fundamental property of light from astronomical objects, and measuring that polarization often yields crucial information, which is unobtainable otherwise. This chapter reviews the useful formalisms for describing polarization in the optical regime, the mechanisms for the creation of such polarization, and methods for measuring it. Particular emphasis is given on how to implement a polarimeter within an astronomical facility, and on how to deal with systematic effects that often limit the polarimetric performance.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    ​The profit may even be bidirectional as some developments for astronomical polarimetry have already found their spin-off in other applications, like remote sensing (Tyo et al. 2006) and biomedical applications.

  2. 2.

    ​The sign of Q depends on the choice of the observer. It is usually parallel or perpendicular to some convenient direction, such as the coordinate system used on the sky, or the optical table. More fundamental issues are related to the handedness, i.e., the direction from + Q to + U, and the sign of V. Particularly the latter has generated a lot of confusion in the literature (see Tinbergen (1996) and Clarke (2009) for extensive discussions on this matter), because the rotation direction of the E-vector changes orientation when looking at the propagating beam from the source’s or from the instrument’s point of view, and also when considering a co-moving or a fixed reference plane within which the E-vector is evaluated. Several (conflicting) conventions exist for positive handedness, but the best one can hope for is that the signs of Q, U, and V are unambiguously defined for each individual publication.

  3. 3.

    ​Note that this is not valid if the coordinate system is modified by M itself, for instance, if it contains an odd number of mirrors.

  4. 4.

    ​Determining the properties of anthropogenic aerosols that pose health hazards and can significantly influence global climate is therefore a main science case for the implementation of polarimetry on Earth-observing platforms.

  5. 5.

    ​The expected polarization from an exo-Jupiter is generally much larger than from our own Jupiter since the latter can never be observed at large scattering angles. The integrated polarization signals of the outer planets are therefore small, although specific polarized structures appear at large spatial resolution.

  6. 6.

    ​The term “dichroic” to describe the polarizing action of a material is particularly confusing since an identical term is also used to describe the wavelength dependence of coating reflectivities. The polarization effect was found to be related to color effects when it was discovered, and the terminology has stuck.

  7. 7.

    ​Fast, low-noise two-dimensional detectors are currently being developed mostly for application in wavefront sensors.

  8. 8.

    ​These are commercially available for machine vision applications.

  9. 9.

    ​The elements of the first row of a Mueller matrix are, however, very important in the description of polarimetric modulation, see the next section.

  10. 10.

    ​This description assumes that the entire Stokes vector is modulated. For a linear polarimeter or a circular polarimeter, the dimension of these matrices needs to be reduced to avoid singularities in the matrix inversion.

  11. 11.

    ​Note that this value is very close to the δ ≈ 127∘ required for equal modulation amplitudes in Q, U, and V.

  12. 12.

    ​Fortunately, the Earth’s atmosphere is not polarizing nor birefringent, although the presence of dust in the atmosphere does create small polarization signals (Hough 2007). Scattered (sun or moon) light can create a polarized sky background.

  13. 13.

    ​In the IR range, variable atmospheric transmission and background also play a role in this term t i .

  14. 14.

    ​This is an interesting finding by itself: this means that asymmetries in the solar shape, due to sunspots, and in the medium between the Sun and the Earth are very small indeed. This implies that the same is the case for similar stars and that detected polarization is solely due to interstellar absorption or circumstellar objects like exoplanets.

  15. 15.

    ​Even for solar observations at high spatial and spectral resolution!

  16. 16.

    ​For a description of the propagation of Gaussian noise to derived observables like the degree or angle of linear polarization, see Sparks and Axon (1999), Patat and Romaniello (2006) and chapter 5 of Clarke (2009).

  17. 17.

    ​The same is true for an increase in spectral resolution.

  18. 18.

    ​It is often sufficient to just have 90∘ point symmetry such that the polarizing and/or retardance properties of a part of some optical component is compensated with another, identical, crossed part of the same component. This can be the case for, e.g., a square aperture.

  19. 19.

    ​These are the directions perpendicular (“senkrecht” in German) and parallel to the reflection plane.

  20. 20.

    ​Note that solar telescopes are generally an order of magnitude smaller than nighttime telescopes, because of the enormous heat load in the prime focus

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sterrewacht Leiden, Universiteit Leiden, Niels Bohrweg 2, 2333, Leiden, CA, The Netherlands

    Dr. Frans Snik

  2. Sterrewacht Leiden, Universiteit Leiden, Niels Bohrweg 2, 2333, Leiden, CA, The Netherlands

    Prof. Dr. Christoph U. Keller

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  1. Dr. Frans Snik
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  1. Department of Physics & Space Sciences, Florida Institute of Technology, University Boulevard, Melbourne, FL, USA

    Terry D. Oswalt

  2. Labrador Lane, Cockeysville, MD, USA

    Howard E. Bond

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Snik, F., Keller, C.U. (2013). Astronomical Polarimetry: Polarized Views of Stars and Planets. In: Oswalt, T.D., Bond, H.E. (eds) Planets, Stars and Stellar Systems. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5618-2_4

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