• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.15-39
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• 2014

Polarization is a basic property of light and is fundamentally linked to the internal geometry of a source of radiation. Polarimetry complements photometric, spectroscopic, and imaging analyses of sources of radiation and has made possible multiple astrophysical discoveries. In this article I review (i) the physical basics of polarization: electromagnetic waves, photons, and parameterizations; (ii) astrophysical sources of polarization: scattering, synchrotron radiation, active media, and the Zeeman, Goldreich-Kylafis, and Hanle effects, as well as interactions between polarization and matter (like birefringence, Faraday rotation, or the Chandrasekhar-Fermi effect); (iii) observational methodology: on-sky geometry, influence of atmosphere and instrumental polarization, polarization statistics, and observational techniques for radio, optical, and $X/{\gamma}$ wavelengths; and (iv) science cases for astronomical polarimetry: solar and stellar physics, planetary system bodies, interstellar matter, astrobiology, astronomical masers, pulsars, galactic magnetic fields, gamma-ray bursts, active galactic nuclei, and cosmic microwave background radiation.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• v.1
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• pp.142-145
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• 2006

The synergism of active and passive microwave techniques for hurricane ocean wind remote sensing is explored. We performed the analysis of Windsat data for Atlantic hurricanes in 2003-2005. The polarimetric third Stokes parameter observations from the Windsat 10, 18 and 37 GHz channels were collocated with the ocean surface winds from the Holland wind model, the NOAA HWind wind vectors and the Global Data Assimilation System (GDAS) operated by the National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP). The collocated data were binned as a function of wind speed and wind direction, and were expanded by sinusoidal series of the relative azimuth angles between wind and observation directions. The coefficients of the sinusoidal series, corrected for atmospheric attenuation, have been used to develop an empirical geophysical model function (GMF). The Windsat GMF for extreme high wind compares very well with the aircraft radiometer and radar measurements.

• 한국지구물리탐사학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.271-276
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• 2006

In this paper a polarimetric airborne SAR measurement has been used to study the radar polarimetric characteristics in the intertidal area on the south coastof the Korea. The L-band NASA/JPL airborne SAR (AIRSAR) data, which were acquired on the intertidal zone during PACRIM-II Korea campaign on September 30, 2000, were used for this research. The most intertidal zones of Yeoja Bay are composed of muddy soils with high silt and clay percentage. Models of microwave scattering from rough surfaces, i.e., semi-empirical model, and Extended Bragg model, were applied to investigate the surface characteristics of intertidal zones.