The Ocean Radiometer for Carbon Assessment (ORCA), currently being developed at Goddard, is a hyperspectral instrument with a spectral range extending from 350nm to 880nm in the UV and visible wavelength. Its radiometric measurement accuracy will depend, in part, on the extent to which it is insensitive to linearly polarized light. A wedge type depolarizer is used to reduce ORCA's polarization sensitivity over its entire spectral range. The choice for this approach is driven by the large spectral range and to a certain extent is also influenced by the currently orbiting SeaWifs instrument's use of a wedge depolarizer and its low polarization sensitivity. The wedge depolarizer's design, its modeled and measured depolarization characteristics are presented.

Date Published: 13 September 2011
PDF: 11 pages
Proc. SPIE 8153, Earth Observing Systems XVI, 81530U (13 September 2011); doi: 10.1117/12.895482

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 8153:
Earth Observing Systems XVI
James J. Butler; Xiaoxiong Xiong; Xingfa Gu, Editor(s)