Estimation of polarization state from hyperspectral imagery

A test was undertaken in Tucson, AZ to simultaneously measure the four components of the Stokes vector with a Lenticular Prismatic Polarization Integrating (LPPI) Filter. Simultaneous measurements were taken with a tomographic hyperspectral imaging instrument. Data were taken in the visible spectral band of a variety of scenes over a diurnal period to find portions of objects which possessed a relatively high degree of polarization (DOP; total, linear, and circular). Spectral content of both natural and man made objects was analyzed as well as the spectral content of the areas which possessed a relatively high DOP to ascertain if relatively high DOP objects have similar spectra. The objective of the study is the development of techniques which enable estimation of the DOP of objects from an analysis of the spectral content alone, thus enabling both multispectral processing and polarization detection without the need for separate polarization instrumentation.