Development of tunable imaging spectro-polarimeter for remote sensing

The imaging spectrometer with a tunable filter, which can select the observing wavelength arbitrarily, is useful for the remote sensing of the earth. The LCTF (Liquid Crystal Tunable Filter) has a capability of selecting the observing wavelength instantaneously with high spectral resolution. Taking advantage of this filter we have developed an LCTF spectro-polarimeter system with a polarimetry function, which can be realized by rotating the LCTF itself. Thus this LCTF spectro-polarimeter system can acquire valuable image information of the earth's environments by continuously changing both wavelength and polarization angle in response to the observation requirements. The details of the configuration and performance of the LCTF spectro-polarimeter are presented in this paper. (C) 2003 COSPAR. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.