Seminar Ozean, Eis, Atmosphäre

The polarisation of electromagnetic radiation is of importance in many remote sensing contexts because most scattering and emission processes in the atmosphere and on the earth surface show some polarisation dependence. This talk is intended as a brief review of the polarisation of electromagnetic radiation, with an emphasis on (1) the different ways to describe polarisation (Jones vector, polarisation ellipse, Stokes parameters, scattering/Mueller matrix) and on (2) the connection between the formal description and "physical reality" (measuring Stokes parameters, partial polarization).