The polarization of skylight: An example from nature

American Journal of Physics

Volumn 75, Issue 1, 2007, Pages 25-35

  Smith, Glenn S ^a  

^a GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 33846342627     PISSN: 00029505     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1119/1.2360991     Document Type: Article

References (47)

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15. In Eqs. (6) and (8) we have postulated the properties for the electric field of natural light. Then we used these properties to predict the action of the linear polarizer on this light. Historically, the opposite was true: The action of polarizers on natural light was used to infer the properties of the light. See, for example, G. G. Stokes, "On the composition and resolution of streams of polarized light from different sources," Trans. Cambridge Philos. Soc. 9, 399-416 (1852);
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17. We have discussed partially polarized light that is formed by adding linearly polarized light to natural light. Partially polarized light can be formed in other ways. For example, partially polarized light that is quasimonochromatic is formed by adding elliptically polarized light to natural light. The composition of partially polarized, quasi-monochromatic light can be determined by performing a series of measurements with a linear polarizer and a linear retarder. The details are given in M. Born and E. Wolf, Principles of Optics, 7th ed. (Cambridge U. P., Cambridge, 1999), Chap. 10;
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19. The scattering element (molecule) is in random motion with the speed v «c. We have assumed that this motion does not change the statistical properties of the field, and we have used the expression for the radiated field of a stationary dipole: G. S. Smith, An Introduction to Classical Electromagnetic Radiation (Cambridge U. P., Cambridge, 1997), pp. 452-465.
20. The superscript sr is used to indicate that this is the "scattered radiated" field: the part of the scattered field that behaves as 1/r.
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