Advanced Water Vapor/Ocean Plastic Polarimetry

Evaluate, Model, and possible demonstration of polarimeter design options established by SSPCI, WISSP, and LOOP project concepts. Each concept is related but have variations on core technologies to achieve a spectrally resolves polarimetric observation. Concepts include Photonic Integrated Circuits, Diffractive Filter Arrays, and Machine Learning. Impact of the technology on planned or potential Earth Science missions: Polarimetry coupled with a precision lidar measure offers a wide swath science data product associated with air quality, ocean plastics, or water vapor. Polarimeters are very low-cost instruments with very complex algorithms to yield science data products. Langley has a core team that have been developing algorithms while working with NASA GISS RSP and South Korean Polcube instruments. The algorithm techniques by the Langley team have significantly improved processing time.

Increase scientific understanding of natural phenomena using remote sensing.

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