Clear Night Sky Polarization Patterns Under the Super Blue Blood Moon

Abstract

Investigating celestial polarization patterns in the case of different environments is important for exploring the atmospheric radiative transfer mechanism. Although intensive studies on clear sky, foggy sky, and even total solar eclipse sky have been conducted, the polarization distribution generated by the moonlight has not been well investigated. This study analyzes celestial polarization patterns generated by the Super Blue Blood Moon (SBBM) through several comparative studies. The polarization patterns under the SBBM are collected, analyzed, and compared with both those generated by the ideal single-scattering Rayleigh model and those in the normal sky. From the analysis of the relative variation of the celestial polarization characteristics including the Degree of Polarization (DoP) and Angle of Polarization (AoP), the changes of the extremum, frequency, symmetric line, and neutral points are discussed. As a result, SBBM polarization patterns change at the beginning of the partial eclipse, and the neutral points vary from traditional neutral points. The value of DoP gradually decreases as the obscuration ratio of the Moon increases. The AoP is no longer symmetrical about the celestial meridian. As a conclusion, it is suggested that the variation of the polarized skylight during the SBBM should be considered in atmospheric model calculation for nocturnal biological activity and navigation information computation.

Passive Polarized Vision for Autonomous Vehicles: A Review

“…Since then, related studies relying on the polarized skylight for navigation purposes aim mainly to design and fabricate PbC for heading detection. As far we know, these studies were achieved by one American company developing the SkyPASS product (Polaris Sensor Technologies, Inc., USA, [ 160 , 161 , 162 ]), but they do not sell it outside of the USA (cost in excess of USD 10k), one research group in the USA [ 163 ], two French universities [ 11 , 12 , 164 , 165 ], one research group in Germany [ 166 ], one research group in Scotland [ 167 ], and seven Chinese universities [ 168 , 169 , 170 , 171 , 172 , 173 , 174 , 175 , 176 , 177 , 178 , 179 , 180 , 181 , 182 , 183 ].…”

“…DoFP polarization cameras are available with a unit cost of USD 1.5k–3k; however, this price is too expensive for service robotics or mass-market automotive applications. All other civilian research studies in China claim a heading accuracy in the range 0.2°–1° [ 168 , 169 , 170 , 171 , 172 , 173 , 174 , 175 , 176 , 177 , 178 , 179 , 180 , 181 , 182 ].…”

Biomimetic Polarized Light Navigation Sensor: A Review

“…In a cloudy night sky, the standard deviation is 0.47 • [68]. In addition, references [63,69,70] also studied the effects of the moon on the polarization patterns of celestial bodies, such as DOP and AOP, indicating that a smaller lunar illumination fraction corresponds to a lower DOP. Although the above research provides effective evidence for us to use nighttime polarized light during navigation, compared to daytime polarization modes, the polarization modes generated by the moon are very complex, and the low light environment at night poses challenges to the detection of polarization modes.…”