Date: 14/05/2024 16:32:36
From: Ian
ID: 2154169
Subject: Polarised Sky

A little while back btm posted this which I found interesting:

My sunglasses are polarised; if I tilt my head to the right (so my right ear is resting on my right shoulder) the sky appears to become a deeper blue and the contrast in the clouds increases (dark parts become darker and light parts become lighter.) I’ve noticed that this makes it easier to spot things like aeroplanes. Tilting my head to the left has the opposite effect: the sky becomes lighter blue and the cloud contrast decreases. If I look east, though, the effect is reversed: tilting my head to the left darkens the blue of the sky and increases the contrast. Tilting my head in either direction has no effect if I’m looking south or north. Just donning the sunglasses and looking east or west darkens the sky a little; looking in the half-cardinal directions (NE, SE, SW, NW) give the appearance of a gradual change from light (in the north or south) to dark (east or west) in the blueness of the sky.

Obviously the glasses are polarised diagonally, with the direction of polarisation of both lenses the same. A quick check confirms this and establishes that it’s top left (from my POV, but from the front) to bottom right. What I find intriguing, though, is that daylight is polarised only if it comes from east or west, but not from north or south. This provides me with a (daytime-only) non-magnetic compass.

This trick relies on the observed polarization pattern of the daytime sky described by the https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rayleigh_sky_model

Within the atmosphere, Rayleigh scattering of light by air molecules, water, dust, and aerosols causes the sky’s light to have a defined polarization pattern. The same elastic scattering processes cause the sky to be blue. The polarization is characterized at each wavelength by its degree of polarization, and orientation (the e-vector angle, or scattering angle).

The polarization pattern of the sky is dependent on the celestial position of the Sun. While all scattered light is polarized to some extent, light is highly polarized at a scattering angle of 90° from the light source. In most cases the light source is the Sun, but the Moon creates the same pattern as well. The degree of polarization first increases with increasing distance from the Sun, and then decreases away from the Sun. Thus, the maximum degree of polarization occurs in a circular band 90° from the Sun. In this band, degrees of polarization near 80% are typically reached.

Degree of polarization in the Rayleigh sky at sunset or sunrise. The zenith is at the center of the graph.
When the Sun is located at the zenith, the band of maximal polarization wraps around the horizon. Light from the sky is polarized horizontally along the horizon. During twilight at either the vernal or autumnal equinox, the band of maximal polarization is defined by the north-zenith-south plane, or meridian. In particular, the polarization is vertical at the horizon in the north and south, where the meridian meets the horizon. The polarization at twilight at an equinox is represented by the figure to the right. The red band represents the circle in the north-zenith-south plane where the sky is highly polarized. The cardinal directions (N, E, S, W) are shown at 12-o’clock, 9 o’clock, 6 o’clock, and 3 o’clock (counter-clockwise around the celestial sphere, since the observer is looking up at the sky).

Degree of polarization in the Rayleigh sky at sunset or sunrise. The zenith is at the center of the graph.

.

Note that because the polarization pattern is dependent on the Sun, it changes not only throughout the day but throughout the year. When the sun sets toward the South, in the northern hemisphere’s winter, the North-Zenith-South plane is offset, with “effective” North actually located somewhat toward the West. Thus if the sun sets at an azimuth of 255° (15° South of West) the polarization pattern will be at its maximum along the horizon at an azimuth of 345° (15° West of North) and 165° (15° East of South).

During a single day, the pattern rotates with the changing position of the sun. At twilight, it typically appears about 45 minutes before local sunrise and disappears 45 minutes after local sunset. Once established it is very stable, showing change only in its rotation. It can easily be seen on any given day using polarized sunglasses.

Many animals use the polarization patterns of the sky at twilight and throughout the day as a navigation tool. Because it is determined purely by the position of the Sun, it is easily used as a compass for animal orientation. By orienting themselves with respect to the polarization patterns, animals can locate the Sun and thus determine the cardinal directions.

It is thought that these polarization patterns are an aid to direction finding for insects as well as for migratory birds.

The Moon creates the same polarization pattern. Thus it is possible to use the polarization patterns as a tool for navigation at night. The only difference is that the degree of polarization is not quite as strong.

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Date: 14/05/2024 16:39:21
From: OCDC
ID: 2154170
Subject: re: Polarised Sky

Interesting. I’d noticed my sun spectacles had different effects in different directions. I’ll have to study further.

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Date: 14/05/2024 16:54:17
From: SCIENCE
ID: 2154174
Subject: re: Polarised Sky

Someone posted a diagram following it too, but yous’l‘ve to go back and find it yourselves because we can’t be bothered.

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Date: 14/05/2024 17:28:56
From: Peak Warming Man
ID: 2154181
Subject: re: Polarised Sky

Very interesting but there are many theories of how birds navigate.

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Date: 14/05/2024 17:35:12
From: Ian
ID: 2154183
Subject: re: Polarised Sky

I was out there about 30 mins before sunset experimenting. The effect appeared to be strongest at about 45 degrees elevation in the north-east and across the south and south-west sky. I don’t think this is much of a practical compass.. easier to note that the west is the direction of the setting sun.

However, what if you are a Viking captain, 900 years ago. You are sailing westward to Greenland — you hope. It’s getting late in the sailing season, and during the long polar twilight, with neither sun nor stars visible, directions are impossible to determine. Even in the daytime, the sun is often hidden by fog. You’ve heard vague rumors of a strange black rock that points to the north, but you’ve also heard that ice somehow disturbs its workings. Surely a sunstone is more reliable. If only yours had not been stolen when you stopped for supplies in Iceland! …

https://www.gi.alaska.edu/alaska-science-forum/polar-navigation-and-sky-compass

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Date: 14/05/2024 17:43:23
From: Ian
ID: 2154186
Subject: re: Polarised Sky

Peak Warming Man said:


Very interesting but there are many theories of how birds navigate.

Sure.. well a couple, but WP makes a strong case for this method.. especially for bees.

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Date: 14/05/2024 18:25:31
From: Ian
ID: 2154201
Subject: re: Polarised Sky

Patterns of polarized light present in the clear dusk sky provide directional information relevant to the orientation behaviour of migratory birds. Experiments performed with white-throated sparrows (Zonotrichia albicollis) and American tree sparrows (Spizella arborea), North American night migrants, examined migratory orientation between the time of sunset and the first appearance of stars under several manipulations of skylight polarization patterns. Under clear skies, birds tested in Emlen funnel orientation cages oriented their hopping basically parallel to the E-vector of polarized light, with a bias towards the brightest part of the sky (sunset direction). Under solid, thick overcast conditions (no polarized light from the natural sky), birds showed axially bimodal hopping orientation parallel to an imposed E-vector. When birds were tested in cages covered with depolarizing material under a clear sky, their hopping orientation was seasonally appropriate and indistinguishable from controls viewing an unaltered clear sky. Skylight polarization patterns are not necessary for the occurrence of migratory orientation, but birds respond strongly to manipulations of the E-vector direction. The results reported here support the hypothesis that the relevant stimulus is the E-vector orientation rather than other parameters of skylight, e.g. intensity or colour patterns, degree of polarization. It appears that these night migrants are using skylight polarization at dusk as one of a set of multiple compass capabilities. Because of the necessarily artificial nature of the polarized light stimuli used in the experimental manipulations, it has not been possible to establish the relationship between this orientation cue and other known mechanisms (magnetic, sun and star compasses).

https://journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/141/1/241/5467/Skylight-Polarization-Patterns-and-the-Orientation

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Date: 14/05/2024 18:47:31
From: dv
ID: 2154208
Subject: re: Polarised Sky

Good thread

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Date: 19/05/2024 20:04:55
From: Ian
ID: 2155998
Subject: re: Polarised Sky

Related:

Polarization of light from rainbows may be observed in a similar manner…

While the polarization of the rainbow is not well characterized in the literature, some polarization is evident in the rainbow, particularly in the near vertical parts of the rainbow near the horizon. Any reflected light will be partially polarized by the fact that the reflection coefficients for light parallel and perpendicular to the plane of incidence of the sunlight on the reflecting surface will be different, enhancing one plane of polarization over the other.

The plane of polarization of the rainbow is tangent to the rainbow arc. Lynch and Livingston report “Measurements with a polarimeter show that the rainbow is polarized up to 94%. This polarization arises at the internal reflection in the water drop which is near the Brewster angle. The bright sky inside the primary bow is also tangentially polarized since most of this additional scattered light has taken a similar path through the droplets.”

——

Also.. even more loosely related:

I have sometimes noticed , in the middle of bright mostly cloudless days, in or around winter, examples of cloud iridescence… only observable to me when wearing polarized sun glasses…

Iridescent clouds are a diffraction phenomenon caused by small water droplets or small ice crystals individually scattering light. Larger ice crystals do not produce iridescence, but can cause halos, a different phenomenon.

Irisation is caused by very uniform water droplets diffracting light (within 10 degrees from the Sun) and by first order interference effects (beyond about 10 degrees from the Sun). It can extend up to 40 degrees from the Sun.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_iridescence

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Date: 30/05/2024 02:46:23
From: SCIENCE
ID: 2159596
Subject: re: Polarised Sky

Ah memories, see, 2004, some fella teaching

us about the Polarised Sky.

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